


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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REY. TITUS COAN-A I 




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TITUS COAN. 



A MEMORIAL, 



BY 



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Mrs. LYDIA fBINGHAlVL* COAN 



INTRODUCTION BY 

REV. S. J. HUMPHREY, D. D., 
Dist. Sec, A. B. C. F. M. 




CHICAGO: 

Fleming H. Eevell, 148 & 150 Madison St.^ 

Publisher of Evangelical Literature. 



\ 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by 

LYDIA BINGHAM COAN, 

.'m the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



INTEODUCTION. 



^npHE heritage of the Church in her Missionaries grows 
<?s5t§ richer with each new generation. The gains are not 
only in the roll of distinguished names and the record of 
grand achievements, but also in a wide diversity of pecu- 
liar gifts. Some have wrought at foundations, out of the 
sight of men. Some have left monuments of long suffering 
toil in languages reduced to writing and in translations of 
the word of God. To others it has been given to illustrate, 
in some heroic way, the '•'■patience of hope." It is said that 
at the opening of the American Board's work in India 
more missionaries died in the first twenty years, than there 
were converts made. The men sent by the London Mis- 
sionary Society to the South Seas spent fourteen years of 
self denying service before a single native's voice was heard 
in prayer, and it was only after twenty-two years of toil 
that they were made glad by the baptism of the first con- 
vert. 

The subject of this Memorial was permitted, through 
the abounding grace of God, to enjoy a wholly different 
experience. He entered upon his mission to the Sandwich 



ii Introduction. 



Islands, on the eve of a mighty outpouring of the Spirit; 
and he seems to have been divinely fitted for this crisis of 
the work by. a large endowment of evangelistic gifts. In 
three months from the time he first set foot on the shores 
of Hawaii he began to preach in the native tongue. Be- 
fore his first year closed, the audiences, drawn to hear the 
Word by his peculiar power, reached many hundreds. And 
in six years from his arrival three-fourths of the adult pop- 
ulation of his parish, to the number of more than seven 
thousand, were gathered into the bonds of Christian fel- 
lowship. There have been few thus honored of the Spirit 
in any age. It certainly is a success almost unparalleled in 
the annals of modern missions. A rare privilege then is 
given us in being permitted to look into the more private 
workings of a life so eminently blessed. This volume 
composed chiefly of unstudied utterances of the heart in 
familiar letters to kindred and missionary associates, will 
form a fitting companion, and will be, in some sort, a com- 
plement to Mr. Coan's own two volumes, Adventures i7t 
Patagonia., and Life in Hawaii. The labor of collecting 
and arranging the material is an offering of tender affec- 
tion by the wife of his later years, herself born on mission- 
ary soil, and bearing an honored missionary name. The 
entire proceeds of the work are consecrated to the cause 
to which Mr. Coan and his noble associates gave their 
lives. 

This Memorial will be read with special interest by 
those who have long been familiar with the bright particu- 



Introduction. iii 



lar spot which the Sandwich Islands furnish in the history 
of modern missions. It can scarcely fail to be a source of 
rich spiritual profit and encouragement to the growing 
number who pray in the secret place for the speedy com- 
ing of the Kingdom, and whose faith finds its assurance in 
the divine promise, "All the ends of the world shall re- 
member and turn unto the Lord : and all the kindreds of 
the nations shall worship before thee." s. j. h. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

Parentage — Youthful experiences — In the militia — 
Teaching — Conversion — At Auburn Theological Semi- 
nary — Tribute of Rev. Newton Reed — Letters to Miss 
Church — To his brother — His inner life i 

II. 

Ordination — Commission to Patagonia — A struggle and 
victory — Farewell letters — The voyage to and return from 
Patagonia iq 

III. 

Appointed to the Hawaiian Mission — Marriage — Fare- 
well letter from Boston to his parents — Letters from on, 
shipboard to his brother — To his father — At Valparaiso — 
A horseback journey to Santiago — Arrival at Honolulu 

21 

IV. 

First experiences on missionary ground — The people's 
welcome — A royal banquet — From Honolulu to Hilo — 
Distressing experiences — A picture of loveliness — The 
new home — Work for sailors — The first sermon in 
Hawaiian 34 

. V. 

Division of labor — A vast parish — Increasing interest — 
Protracted meetings — A visitation from God — "Four mem- 



ii Contents. 

orable ye?-r5 i: H. : — IrTTer? :: Rev. Lorenzo Lyons — 
A continue i r:::m:^t5::^:::-5 \i :he ?7^:^5 presence — 
Doub-s :-:: i leir; — T : : 7 :i_ : is .:.: : rs — _ _ : ; i: :broughPima 
— Sysrt" :f r::i:\ idion of C3.-::i:.:t5 — A place erf 
rr r_^ — Tilings of revival in K:r : u li — Sanitary pre- 
:.-u::::-5 — 'Z':.z great ingatherl-g: — T't I'/.L irrimunion — 
TJir z: 5e :: ;::.~le — The lenenl nieeTirg :: :S39....4o 

VI. 

An estensi¥^e coirespondence — ^To private friends — 
T: ^r'r :'t"t 'z^i ":55':r:.r7 societies — ^Home life at 

Hilc — A ^ :: us :t : il — Ai trsr innuences — Romanism 
— Vis::; ::::.: :::r:g::r:5 — A Szir:i:: ; : r — Volcanic 
-i:.---- 51 

VII. 

Among the Chilcrr- — TAr ZS rning Star first planned 
— Hawaiian Missions :- ^: rrsia — ^The arrival of :hr 
missionary ship — A ::-.! Ar 1 s:r::::sn:: — T'_r rrt:: ri::- 
tion c: iSff — ^Awfiil e::t: t izf — Z :::-r ':-t i;7:ve 
volcan: — AiA A i:-^^z: — .^ r : ^ : ii:.--^::.-.zz — INIis- 
cellar e : s A::f:s — 1~ '.':.t C:v- '•• lz — vln Ai::,raham 
LincoA, s iz::-: — . .. re ::: :: : :ne — ^A visit to North Hawaii 
70 

VIII. 

Voyage to MicronesA. — ZxTr:-::s 5rom journal — King 
George's Isles — ^A desolated Air i — Results of Fre r. : ':. : _1 e 
— Abandoned fortifications — Or^ :r : -g a Chnrch — A war 
jast cAsei — A volcanic island — 1:::: r_: dirough the ^irf 

— G : t: nTr:Ar 'A the M:;r:-es:i:: ^rissAn— Retnm 
:c Hi 1:: 103 



Contents. iii 



IX. 



Proposed visit to the United States postponed — Imma- 
ture Christians — Dreadful experiences with earthquakes — 
Great destruction in Kau, Hilo, and Puna — A tidal wave — 
Letter to the "Friends" — The Herald of Peace — Native 
pastorates — Death of Rev. Hiram Bingham — Letter of con- 
dolence — Native benevolence 115 

X. 

Return to the United States in 1870 — Great activity — At 
Oberlin — At Plymouth Church, Brooklyn — In New England 
— At Washington — Busy times — Return to Hawaii — A 
beautiful tribute 127 

XL 

A cordial welcome — Death of Mrs. Fidelia Coan — A 
blessed departure — Letter to his son — To Prof J. D. 
Dana — Second marriage — Advice to his son — The transit 
of Venus — A night on Haleakala — A glorious view — A 
tour in Puna — A dangerous incident — Bad weather — A 
happy occasion — Touring in Hilo — Letters to his wife — 
Christmas in Hilo — Contentment — On the revival of 1876 
in the United States — Avarice in the Islands — Resting on 
the rock — Letters to Rev. G. W. Coan — Yearning to work 
for other races — Ignorance on the subject of Missions — 
"Distance lends enchantment" — Memories of the past 

134 

XII. 

Publication of "Adventures in Patagonia" — Preparing 
the autobiography, "Life in Hawaii" — The eruption of 
1 880-8 1 — Letter to Rev. H. Halsey — Old-time reminis- 
cences — Deaths among friends — To his children on his 



iv CoJitents. 

eightieth birthday — Exhortation to faith — Description of 
the eruption — To Rev. Jas. Boyd. D. D. — Divine dehver- 
ance from the volcano — Mr. Hallenbeck's visit — Results 
— A steady work — On Garfield's assassination — To F. W. 
Damon — On ^Missions in China — To Dr. Boyd — On the 
Revised Testament — To Rev. H. Halsey — "The True 
Church, which is it? " i68 

XIII. 

Small-pox at Honolulu — The general meeting at Hono- 
lulu of 1882 — The voyage — A railroad on Hawaii — Ad- 
dress to the children of the Foreign Church — To the 
students of Oahu College — Return to Emerald Bower — 
Letter to Rev. X. G. Clark D. D. — Jo}-ful and sad news 
from the Micronesia ^[ission — Great changes at Honolulu 
in fifty years — Chinamen in the Islands — Labors of Mr. 
Damon among them — The letting in of alchohol — Sorrow 
for the danger — Letter to Rev. E. P. Goodwin D. D. — 
Impressions on interest in Missions — Women's work — Gen- 
eral apathy deplored — Generosity of the Hawaiians favor- 
ably contrasted with that of the American Christians — 
Renewed blessings among his people — Meeting of East 
Hawaii Association in Hilo — The last day of health — Last 
letters to his nephews — The summons from the ]\ [aster — A 
glorified death-bed — Tarrying of the messenger — The Land 
of Beulah — Accounts of the :Meeting of the American Board 
— Examinations of candidates for admission to the Church — 
A blessed benediction — The departure — Funeral services 
184 

XIV. 

IN MEMORIAM. 

The memorial service in HaiU Church — Letters of 
condolence and appreciation — From Wm. T. Brigham — 



Contents. v 

His widespread labors — From Rev. Jas. R. Boyd — From 
Rev. N. G. Clark D. D. — From his daughter, Mrs. E. E. 
Waters — From Rev. S. J. Humphrey D. D. — Rev. E. P. 
Goodwin D. D.— Rev. E. K. Alden D. D.— Pres. C. M. 
Hyde — Rev. Hiram Bingham — Rev. S. C. Damon D. D. — 
Prof. Alexander — His devotion to science — From Hon. S. 
N. Castle — From Rev. S. E. Bishop — His power over 
children — An enclosed letter — From Rev. L. Lyons — 
Unremitting trials — Journeys on foot — From Paakala, a 
native parishioner — From Hi, another parishioner — From 
Dr. C. H. Wetmore — Tribute by Mrs. H. Bingham — Mem- 
orial Poem by Mrs. M. C. Kittredge — Letter from Rev. E. 
Bond — From Joel Bean — Paper read by Rev. E. P. Baker, 
at the monthly concert at Hawaii — Epitaph 206 



w 



I. 

" Serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind." 

IN his autobiography,* Mr. Coan tells in brief 
words the story of his first three decades. Giv- 
ing his parentage — Gaylord Coan, of Killing- 
worth, Conn., and Tamza Nettleton, an aunt of the 
Evangelist, Asahel Nettleton— he states his birthda}/, 
1st of February, 1801, and then in rapid survey 
gives the" reader glimpses of his early childhood, of 
work and study, of leaving home and of settlement 
in Western New York. He introduces one, after- 
ward to be most intimately associated with him; 
tells of his choice of a profession, of preparation for 
the ministry, of ordination at Boston, and of em- 
barkation for Patagonia. 

Through all this history the reader is hurried for- 
ward over sixteen short pages, as if the narrator were 
eager to enter upon the main business of his life, his 
earnest work on a mid-ocean isle. 

But the experiences of those earlier years were of 
untold value to the future. He was never to lose 
through life the influence of his childhood, which 
passed in a home so beautifully ordered by pious 
parents that obedience, truthfulness, and filial and 
fraternal affection were the characteristics of the 
eight children reared there. 

His vigorous youthful sports, and the severer toils, 
upon his father's farm, developed and strengthened 
his sturdy frame. Military drill in the militia ranks 

*"Life in Hawaii." A. D. F. Kandolph & Co., NeAv York, 



Memorial of Rei . Titus Coan. 



of the state confirmed his natural promptness and 
precision, while self-reliance and quiet dignity were 
the outgrowth of responsibilities early assumed at 
the teacher's desk of the village school. Seven win- 
ters were passed in teaching, his success as an in- 
structor securing for him the best schools and the 
highest salaries in the neighboring towns. Both 
teacher and pupils carried in the years that followed 
happiest memories of those days. 

Four of Mr. Coan's brothers removed from the 
sequestered Xew England home to the broader fields 
of what was then the West. To the eldest, Rev. 
George Coan. he wrote: "When I reflect on the 
many happy hours I have spent in }'our society, the 
lessons of moral and literary improvement received 
from your lips, and, in a word, the numberless acts 
of kindness, benevolence and attention, of which I 
have been made the recipient, I must acknowledge 
that to your care, under God. I owe much, very 
much. I\Iay my heart never fail to swell with grat- 
itude at the recollection. '' 

His attachment to this brother led him gladly to 
accept an opportunity to teach in Riga. X. Y., where 
George was then settled as pastor. Thus, providen- 
tially, he was led to the companionship of excellent 
ministers, by whose example and conversation his 
own soul was quickened in all its higher impulses. 
Here, too, he met her who Avas yet to be his "peer- 
less helper. " 

Thoucrhtful and sober as he had been for vears, 
he had as yet come to no fixed determination to 
enlist on the Lord's side. When at last this resolve 
was made, it was one, he sa}'s, in which he was 
greatly helped, comforted and established, so that 
duty done for Christ was a sweet and joyous pleas- 
ure. 

But how could he best serve the Master? Of the 
professions, only that of the ministr}- attracted him; 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



for this he felt entirely unfit and unworthy. His 
choice was, therefore, for a business career, follow- 
ing which he meant to be an active and devoted lay- 
man. And for such a career, doubtless, his talents 
fitted him. His perfect integrity, his abhorrence of 
debt, which led to an early formed and conscien- 
tiously practiced rule of his life, never to owe a far- 
thing which he had not means to pay, his sound 
judgment, unflagging energy and uniform urbanity 
of manner, would have secured for him a leading 
place in business circles, and guaranteed pecuniary 
success. But when he had planned for this, the 
Lord revealed another way. God's providences, the 
advice of thoughtful friends and the convictions 
which sprang from his own religious vitality, led him 
to reconsider his decision and to fix upon the minis- 
try. In June, 1831, he entered the middle class 
of Auburn Theological Seminary. He is remem- 
bered by those who knew him there as " unos- 
tentatious, devotedly pious, and possessed of a 
very sweet spirit." Rev. Newton Reed, one of 
his fellow-students at Auburn, gives the following 
tribute: 

"My memory is full of pleasant recollections of 
Mr. Coan. When I returned to the Seminary in 
1832, I found him the superintendent of the Prison 
Sunday School, a position that must have been con- 
ceded to him spontaneously. I immediately became 
acquainted with him, and had many occasions to 
know the value of his wise counsel and his tender 
sympathy. There was a revival in the First Church 
that winter, under the ministry of the Evangelist, 
Burchard, attended with great extravagance, and 
some of the students as well as the citizens lost their 
discretion. Mr. Coan atteuvded the meetings with 
the others, but without being critical or captious, or 
in opposition to a work which seemed to some a 
marvel of grace, he was very useful to many. Dr. 



Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 



Richards himself could hardly have taken a wiser 
course. 

"In the prison school he became acquainted, through 
the teachers and by his own personal enquiries, with 
the religious condition of the prisoners. Those 
whose time was about to expire were invited to come 
to his room, when released, and he would give them 
advice and encouragement which was suited to their 
case. He was very cMscerning of their true charac- 
ter, and was led to a reasonable hope in the conver- 
sion of some.* 

"In the prayer-meeting Brother Coan was distin- 
tinguished by no special fervency in his voice or 
manner, but by expressions of confidence and the 
reality of expectation. It was a steady fire, not a 
flashing blaze. 

"He almost rebuked the candidates for the foreign 
mission field for speaking of their going as a sacri- 
fice. He evidently had a steady delight in the an- 
ticipation of going, and for the true reason — love of 
the Master. The only thing for which I ever heard 
him criticised was a sharp expression against the 
unbecoming rivalry of ministers of difTerent names 
crowding each other in a little village, while the 
great field of the world is calling for laborers. 

"The great beauty of Mr. Coan's character was in 
its symmetry. He was all over alike, not greatly 
above his fellows in any one thing, but in the com- 
bination, physical, intellectual and emotional, and 
even in the imagination, he was head and shoulders 
above them. 

"The first constituent of his character was remark- 
able common sense, and the completeness of it was 
his intelligent piety, his faith. In all the men I 



*A discharged prisoner, who professed to be converted, came 
to his room, and they had a prayer together. When the prisoner 
prayed, he said "7" instead of "We." "That is an evidence," 
said Coan, "that he has been accustomed to pray in his cell." 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



have ever met I don't think I have known one so 
well proportioned." 

With characteristic ardor and fidelity, Mr. Coan 
devoted himself to every duty of the class-room, 
while he improved each opportunity that offered for 
direct work for the Lord. Time he had none for 
keeping a private diary; nor in those days of slow 
mails and expensive postage, was his correspondence 
large. But to his nearest kin, and to her whom he 
had chosen, his heart must speak.* Extracts from 
these letters will reveal the lovely spirit that irradi- 
ated his whole life. 

TO MISS CHUKCH. 

Auburn, July, 1831. — "From this consecrated 
spot I sometimes attempt to survey the vast whiten- 
ing harvest field as it spreads around me to the east 
and west, to the north and south. My eye affects 
my heart and I exclaim, Lord, send me where thou 
wilt, only go with me, lay on me what thou wilt, 
only sustain me. Cut any cord but the one which 
binds me to thy caiise, to thy heart. " 

January, 1832. — "My good works need covering, 
my prayers need praying for, my repentance needs 
repenting of. I ask not to be pardoned in my sin, 
but to be delivered from it. 

"I have now another class in the Prison. Most 
of them I hope are converted. 'Tis truly affecting 
to hear some of them confess their former sins and 



* "During the summer of 1826, I often rode by a school-house 
in a western district of Riga, and through the windows I saw a 
face that beamed on me hke that of an angel. The image was 
deeply impressed, and is still ineffaceable. On inquiry, the young 
lady proved to be'Miss Fidelia Church, of Church ville. " — hife in 
Hawaii, p. 9. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 



with bursting hearts tell of the love of Jesus. I love 
to go into that prison because Jesus loves to go 
there. I often feel as if I wanted to wash the feet 
of those who are Christ's free men there, for it seems 
as if my [Master would do it. Jesus visits their 
dungeon, lights up their dark cells, communes with 
them at midnight and converts their dreary mansion 
into a sanctuary of their souls." 

TO HIS BROTHER. 

March, 1 832. — " I am pent up here amid the 
venerable lore of ages, and hurried from field to field 
of metaphysical, ethical, and theological research. 
After examining the various and contending theories, 
the magisterial dogmas, the abstruse and subtle 
disquisitions, the vain and unsatisfying speculations, 
the grave and confident conclusions of numerous 
theological disputants, I gain relief from their per- 
plexing speculations by taking my precious Bible, 
and stealing away close to the feet of Jesus. He 
has told me, when I want anything, to ask him, and 
his promise never fails, he never upbraids. He does 
not, indeed, answer all my irreverent inquiries, but 
he teaches me not to dive beyond my depth, nor 
soar amid brightness too dazzling. Here I learn 
that I cannot trace the mysterious phenomena of my 
own mind, then whv should I think to find out the 
Almighty to perfection? Thus I can run to my 
Bible, and when the billows begin to beat around 
me, I can lay my hand upon that and find it 'Rock,' 
and thus with Jesus for my teacher, I can sit and 
quiet myself as a weaned child." 



Memoi'ial of Rev. Titles Coan. 



TO MISS CHURCH. 

July, 1832. — "The Lord my Savior is still good, 
supremely good, to me. I know I love him, and I 
can as confidently say, I know I abuse him and am 
unworthy of his love, yet he still smiles. Oh, he 
sometimes shines upon my ravished soul. I can't 
sacrifice, I can't stiffer anything in his service. I 
can never make myself poor nor sorrowful while 
laboring for him. ... I think that I am willing 
to go anywhere at the call of my Lord. But I will 
not forget what Peter said. I pray God to show me 
the path of duty, to make me holy, and nerve me 
for toil. He only knows where our lot will be cast, 
and where our flesh will rest in hope. I wrote you 
that I had established a little Sabbath school and 
Bible class at 5 P. M. on the Sabbath. This is in a 
very wicked neighborhood, half a mile from Auburn. 
The school was small at its commencement, but it 
now numbers nearly a hundred, and is constantly 
increasing. There is much tenderness and solemnity 
in the school." 

November, 1832. — ** When meditating on the 
subject of missions, I often feel T cannot rest.' 
Keep your heart much on the subject. Examine it, 
pray over it, count the cost. Pray for me. Don't 
faint; remember the promise; think of 'the eye that 
kindly watches over all our paths,' the 'arm unseen 
that holds us up,' the hand that crowns us when 
the battle's fought. " 

December, 1832. — "It is but a little time since I 
found my sins an oppressive load. My Savior hid 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Co an. 



his face for a moment. I sought him at twihght, at 
midnight. I inquired of the watchmen. I wandered 
over the field of truth. I looked, I listened, I fainted. 
My Beloved spake — my soul melted — I bathed his 
feet with my tears. I would not let him go till 
he pardoned and smiled. Do you ask where I found 
him? In Jer. iii, 19. At first his voice was indis- 
tinct, but it arrested my attention. I listened and 
he spake again. Is this, said I, the voice of my 
Father? Again the notes became more distinct and 
tender and earnest. He was inquiring how he should 
put me among his children. He stated the condi- 
tion. ' Thou shalt call me my Father, and thou 
shalt not turn away from me.' My heart responded, 
' My Father, my Father, thou art the guide of my 
youth.' I had read these words before, but I never 
found and ate them with such relish as now. The 
condition, * Thou shalt not turn away from me,' 
seemed equally precious as the privilege of adoption. 
I thought I made or renewed an unreserved, an 
unconditional, cheerful, eternal, surrender of myself 

to God I have not only been willing 

for years to go on a mission, but more than willing, 
I have been anxious. The Lord may not count me 
worthy of the privilege. Let God reign. 

JaniLary, 1833. — "God blesses me abundantly. 
My soul is calm and serene. My cup runs over. I 
sometimes seem to bathe in an ocean of tenderness 
and love and bliss. I have not yet offered myself 
formally to the Board. Dr. Richards says he can 
cheerfully recommend me to them. The Lord will 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



direct. Oh, I know he will. I don't feel the least 
anxiety about my future path. Only to be holy. " 

March, 1833. — ''Did you read the ist chapter of 
Matthew with me to-night? Did it interest you? 
In tracing the genealogy of Christ, I found him of 
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, 
I discovered the Root and the Offspring of David, 
the Bright and Morning Star. I saw the stars in the 
right hand of Bethlehem's Babe, and the pillars of 
the universe resting on his shoulders. I could not 
but cry out, 'My Lord and my God!' What a 
blessed name was given to this Babe. Who can 
speak the import of Jesus! Oh, how significant. He 
shall save his people from their sins. Surely God 
has given him a name above every name. None 
other makes such melting melody, such notes of 
ecstacy, such swelling thunders on the plains of im- 
mortality You must pray till you feel 

the power of the Holy Ghost in your soul. Don't 
let covetousness of time lead you to rob God. If 
you do you will rob yourself, you will rob the church 
and a perishing world. I find it so with me. If I 
do not wrestle at the throne of grace until L receive 
a blessing, my soul famishes! Oh, I cannot live 
without God. All earthly joys are bitterness with- 
out his smiles. " 



lo Memorial of Rev, Titus Coa?t. 



II. 



"Faith is mind at its best, its bravest, and its fieriest — 
absorbing into itself the soul's great passions. The power of 
grand living and superb doing is all in it." — Rev. Dr. Park- 
hurst. 

On the 17th of April, 1833, the Presbytery of 
Cayuga County, meeting in Auburn, hcensed Mr. 
Coan to preach, and he spent his next vacation at 
Rochester, where he suppHed a vacant pulpit while 
the pastor was absent at the General Assembly in 
Philadelphia. Here the face which had beamed on 
him from the village school-house was one among 
the listening audience. Miss Church was then 
teaching in Rochester. 

From this place he writes: 

May 18, 1833.— "Beloved Father,— I joyfully 
embrace the opportunity to send you a line by 
Heman, who has called on me to-day on his way to 
Conn. Hitherto the Lord has blessed me beyond 
my fondest hopes. I have had health, and have 
succeeded in my studies, and have been brought 
into the holy ministry under circumstances and 
prospects which impose peculiar obligations, and 
call for peculiar gratitude and undivided consecra- 
tion to the work of the Lord. Ever since I tasted 
the love of God, my heart has been turned toward 
the benighted heathen, although I once did not 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. ii 

suffer myself to indulge a distant hope of laboring 
among them. I feel poorly qualified and very un- 
worthy to become a missionary of the Cross, but the 
heathen are perishing by millions every year; and 
the command of Christ, ' Go ye into all the world,' 
has been rolling down through eighteen hundred 
years upon the dull ears of a worldly, unbelieving 
Church, and somebody must go; therefore, if those 
who are best qualified will not break away from the 
endearments of home and obey this command, 
others who are willing must take the field against 
the dark empire of Satan in heathen lands. To me 
it appears an unspeakable privilege to spend my 
days in leading the wandering and benighted pagan 
to the Lamb of God, in pointing him to that bright 
morning star which gilds the sacred page with such 
glory, and sheds such effulgence on the grave and 
on the land beyond the flood. Will niy dear father 
pray for me that I may have humility and faith, and 
be an instrument of honoring my Master in the con- 
version of souls. " 

On his return to Auburn he wrote : 

TO MISS CHUKCH. 

Juney 1833. — "The Lord has mercifully brought 
me to my old study again, and I bless him for his 
continued and abundant kindness. I feel that this 
is the place where duty calls me, so I summon 
resolution to be contented and happy, but still a 
longing, lingering look of love wanders back. 
Ah! we are separated; well, let it be so, it is all 
right. We need the discipline now, perhaps, to 



12 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

prepare us for the future. Our Father deals very 
tenderly with us, and we owe him the warmest 
passions of our hearts, the mightiest labor of our 
hands'. I arrived here between four and five o'clock, 
after the most painful day's journey I ever ex- 
perienced. I had the distressing honor of being 
sole lord of the coach I occupied; but notwithstand- 
ing my dignity, I was made the sport of every 
gutter and way-log and mound. I was truly treated 
like a thing of naught, or a naughty thing. I really 
felt lighter than vanity — something like a feather 
riding on a thunderbolt. I leaped, danced, smiled, 
grinned, held on, let go, went up light, came down 
heavy, groaned, gnashed, passed fore and aft, 
changed sides, and performed as many evolutions 
as a cotillion dancer. You may think there is ex- 
travagant hyperbole in all this, but every bone and 
muscle of m.y frame at this moment respond that 
there is sober truth in what I write. My coachmen 
were young Jehus." 

A few days later, while Dr. Anderson's letter 
concerning an " Exploring expedition to Patagonia 
resolved upon," was on its way from Boston to the 
Auburn student, whom the Prudential Committee 
had unanimously appointed a missionary of the 
board, he is writing: 

"No matter, love, whether storm or sunshine 
await us, whether our cup be sweet or bitter, we 
have a work to do, and, by the grace of God, we 
will do it. And though our way may be dark and 
stormy, though our path be strewed with thorns, 
yet we shall soon, very soon, reach the end of our 



' Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 13 

pilgrimage, and our weary feet will tread the land 
of immortal song. Sooner than we could hope or 
ask, and infinitely sooner than we deserve, our flesh 
will slumber peacefully — God grant closely together 
— in hope, and our purified and enraptured spirits 
will mount with melody amidst the beaming glories 
of the Godhead. You think brother George will 
try to dissuade me from going on a mission, but you 
did not tell me one of the reasons why he thought I 
ought not to go. I would like to hear them, for 
though he may think me immovable when my mind 
is set, yet I can listen to sound and impartial argu- 
ment, and I still hold myself open to counsel and 
conviction. But I have had sad evidence that there 
are very few enlightened, disinterested and Godlike 
advisers on this point. I do not mean to be stub- 
born, nor do I mean to be fickle, veering and ca- 
pricious. I know my mind is not easily changed 
after it becomes settled, and I pray God that I may 
never lose that trait so essential to the accomplish- 
ment of anything worthy of a Christian or a man. 
Stubbornness I deprecate." 

Then came the call to embark on the hazardous 
Patagonian enterprise. He sought the advice of 
his preceptors, and the venerable Dr. Richards, 
speaking for the faculty, assured Mr. Coan of their 
approval of the proposed mission; that he should be 
honorably released from the further duties of the 
Seminary; and that their prayers should go with 
him. He hastened to Rochester that he might 
confer with his espoused. They had parted but a 
little while before in hope of an early reunion and a 
nuptial day that should consummate their long 



14 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

pledged vows. But this return was unexpected. 
The letter of the secretary was put into Miss 
Church's hand in silence. "As she read, her emotion 
deepened, her tears flowed. What a change of 
situation; what an uprooting of long cherished 
hopes! . . . The struggle was intense. Soon, 
however, faith gained the victory. " And the 
memorable answer was given: " My dear, you 
must go.'' 

This was in accordance with his own decision, 
and there was no longer a doubt to deter him. 
Brief visits were made in Western New York to bid 
brothers and friends farewell, and then his face is 
turned eastward for ordination and embarkation. At 
Auburn he stopped for a few days, and on July lOth 
writes to his father: 

"I need not tell you that this question was a 
solemn one for me to settle, but I committed it to 
God in earnest prayer, and with a determination to 
yield to the convictions of duty. Although it cut 
up all my plans by the roots, yet the voice of Prov- 
idence seemed so distinct in the thing that I soon 
resolved to go. Do pray for your unworthy son; 
he has duties and trials before him which need 
peculiar grace, but the Lord is faithful, and the 
cause is His own. " 

TO MISS CHURCH. 

July II. — "Dearly beloved of my soul, the 
thought that I am seated at my desk, where I have 
spent many sweet seasons of communion with you, 
to address you for the last time from these conse- 
crated walls, causes some tender struggles and 
gushings of nature; but my heart does not faint, it 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 15 

is still fixed. The cords which twine around 
kindred and country and friends twinge and com- 
plain a little. But I must not indulge. The Lord 
is good, immeasurably good, and I am happy. I 
contemplate the arduous enterprise before me with 
pleasure rather than otherwise. " 

Albany, Jidy 14. — *' This is the Sabbath — the 
sweet Sabbath of rest. Recollections sweet and 
tender are finding avenues to my heart, and making 
deep traces there. Associations solemn and moving 
are thickening around my soul and making strong 
impressions there. Less than a year ago I was here 
under circumstances and prospects very different 
from those which now arrest my attention. Then I 
was with my loved one, traveling with her to a 
peaceful home — to the bosom of friends and the 
blessings of the sanctuary. Now I am journeying 
without her toward a land of strangers whose tender 
mercies are cruel — to a region where the daylight of 
life never dawned. " ■ 

Boston, July 18. — "I took the stage last even- 
ing and went out to Dorchester, and spent the night 
with Dr. A.'s family. It was a delightful season to 
me. Mr. Anderson is one of the most amiable men 
I ever saw — kind, affectionate, with a piety sweet 
and clear, consistent and winning. He is also 
equally yoked to a lovely, affectionate and constant 
companion, another self. The family is truly a 
scene of domestic piety and peace. So, by the 
grace of God, we will live, dearest F. I still feel 
happy in the contemplation of my mission, and 



1 6 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

nothing but a solemn sense of duty could induce me 
to turn back. I thank God for the privilege of 
endeavoring at least to seek out some of the lost 
tribes of Adam, and carry to them the peaceful 
news which angels announced to the shepherds of 
Bethlehem. And whether I succeed or not, I have 
the strong consolation that I am acting under a clear 
conviction of duty. My heart pants to give you 
some assistance or counsel or consolation before I 
go. But I can only throw you on the bosom of our 
best beloved, and pray him to keep you in perfect 
peace. Though we never meet on earth our feet 
Avill soon stand upon Mount Zion, whence we shall 
look down upon a world regenerated and filled with 
the glory of God. So fare-you-well. The Lord 
Jehovah shield you — the everlasting arms sustain 
you. 

Nezv York, August 14. — "I am still in excellent 
health and good spirits. The path before me looks 
pleasant and cheering. It brightens every day. It 
is straight and narrow, but it is clear and peaceful. 
No lion ever crowded into it; no ravenous beast 
ever beset it. It is trodden .onlv bv the redeemed; 
and you know what is predicted for the ransomed 
of the Lord. At the invitation of Mr. Peet, Princi- 
pal of the Asylum for Deaf and Dumb, I have spent 
a day in the institution, for the purpose of learning 
natural signs, or to converse by gestures. I was 
exceedingly interested, and succeeded in telling the 
mutes the object of my mission, the character and 
condition of the inhabitants of Patagonia, together 
with other stories, which thev wrote down accu- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 1 7 

rately. Rarely have I been more deeply afifected or 
more highly gratified than in that visit. " 

TO HIS FATHER. 

August 15. — "Last Sabbath I preached in the 
city three times. We find many kind friends in 
New York. Captain C, with whom we sail, is 
amiable and moral, though not a professed Christian. 
He is a member of the Temperance Society, and 
takes no ardent spirits on board his vessel. He has. 
learned by experience that his men will endure cold 
^nd rain, sleet and snow, hunger and fatigue, on 
the dreary rocks of Patagonia better without rum 
than with it. Our outfit is nearly complete, and is 
a very singular one. We endeavor to blend in it 
the wants of the sailor, the hunter, the cook, the 
the physician, the forest traveler, the student of 
nature and the missionary of the cross. So you 
will imagine what a curious and complex little bundle 
we take. I wish you, dear father, to give yourself 
no anxiety about me, only to pray in strong faith 
that your unworthy son may be humble and meek> 
and patient and holy. If these things abound in 
me, I shall be happy and safe anywhere. Without 
these graces I should be wretched even in Paradise. 
The Lord reward you for all your care of me. The 
eternal God be your refuge. Lean upon him in. 
old age. He has promised to be with those who 
love him, * even to hoary hairs.' This world is 
passing. We shall all soon be in eternity. And if 
we are found in Christ, no matter where our ashes 
rest, whether among the tombs of our fathers or in. 



1 8 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

a land of strangers, whether mingled in the same 
urn or with an ocean rolling between; we shall rise 
in glory — we shall meet in Heaven. 

" Your afifectionate and obedient son, 

"Titus." 

One more letter remained to be written before he 
should sail for the "ends of the earth," when "no 
answer to anxious inquiries, no echoes to calls of 
love," could be wafted over a continent or a stormy- 
sea. On the day of embarkation, August i6, he 
writes: 

"I have risen this morning to cast a farewell look 
upon the dear objects around. Yesterday was a 
busy time with us. We carried our little all on 
board the Mary Jane, and saw it stowed snugly 
away. And now the morning breaks upon the 
eastern hills, but the light of my eyes is far to the 
west, and thither my spirit flies with fond and rapid 
flight. ... Be comforted, dearest, be com- 
forted, for he who loves you above all others is in 
good health and is happy. I go with cheerful heart 
and bounding step, the Lord before me and the God 
of Jacob my rearward. Now I can sing a parting 
note to my country in the true spirit of the lines: 

* Yes, I hasten from you gladly, 
From the scenes I love so well.' 

The Lord of Hosts bless and protect, guide and 
sanctify my dear, dear Fidelia. ... I went 
with this open to the P. O. on the moment of my 
departure, hoping to find yours, and it has come. 
I have not time to read it before I go. Thanks, 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 19 

dear, thanks for your kindness. Farewell — I go — I 
go — farewell !" 

Thus we have followed Mr. Coan from his early 
cry, "Lord, send me where thou wilt," to his glad 
acceptance of the commission which sent him on a 
dangerous embassy. The crowded sheets in which 
his soul is mirrored contain no word of fear or 
wavering. Acknowledging a gracious Leader, he 
went forth with bounding step and joyful mien, 
because he believed his paths were directed. How 
bravely he passed through the perils of the wild 
Patagonian life, discharging, with his fellow-explorer, 
the duties of the mission assigned them, appears in 
the published "Adventures."* 

On their return, after an absence of nine months, 
they submitted to the Prudential Committee of the 
A. B. C. F. M. the result of their investigations. 
This report sets forth their careful observations of 
the physical condition of the country, and of its 
degraded inhabitants, and, in conclusion, presents a 
few suggestions both for and against the immediate 
establishment of a mission there: 

"As to the nature of the mission, should one be 
established," writes Mr. Coan, "it must be of a 
peculiar character, and conducted by men of a par- 
ticular stamp. If two men should go among them, 
having a covered wagon for a habitation, who could 
live as they live, until they could acquire their lan- 
guage, they would th^n be prepared to commence 
a local establishment somewhere in the vicinity of 
Gregory's Bay. Then their families might be taken, 
carrying the materials for a house from the United 
States. One might remain at the post, having 

"Adventures in Patagonia." Dodd & Mead, N. Y. 



20 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

charge of the school and domestic concerns, while 
the other spent most of his time in itinerating among 
the adults at their camps. Fuel could be procured 
at Port Famine, and provision be sent out annually 
from the States. Vegetables might be cultivated 
by the boys, when out of school, under the direction 
of their teachers, should it be found that they could 
be raised there. 

"Should this plan succeed the expense of the 
establishment would not be great, and the self- 
denial not greater than missionaries should be will- 
ing to make. " 

Who can doubt that he himself would have made 
the self-denial, had the guiding Hand led him to 
retrace his steps to that field ? 

There were other paths for him to follow. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 2 1 



III 



" I hold by nothing here below, 
Appoint my journey and I go; 
For with a God to guide my way, 
'Tis equal joy to go or stay." 

— Madame Ouyon. 

"Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace." 

Like Jacob of old, Mr. Coan's aged father had 
mourned for the son during his absence. He had 
received no tidings of him since the hour of embarka- 
tion. No wires had announced to him his return. 
In sorrow of heart he had one day said to his neigh- 
bors, "I shall see my Joseph no more." The next 
day he had the glad surprise of beholding his face. 
Other hearts, too, were comforted. 

But it was not for family reunions or the joys of 
home life that he had put on the armor of light. 
Again he Avaited to be sent, and while waiting spent 
the summer of 1834 preaching in Western New 
York. In July he was informed of his appointment 
to the Hawaiian Mission. 

''I received this announcement," he writes, "with 
great joy, for, although I was willing to go to any 
missionary field on the face of the earth, yet the 
Sandwich Islands had ever been a field of peculiar 
and special interest to me. " 

Once more he journeys eastward, but not alone. 
With him is his chosen helpmeet, to whom he had 



2 2 yTe7norial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

been united in marriage on the evening of November 
3, 1834, at the ^Monthly Concert of Prayer for 
Foreign ^Missions. 

From Boston he wrote to his parents: 

December 3, 1834. — "We have now been here 
nearly two weeks, waiting for the ship to be ready. 
We hope to go to-morrow. Twelve missionaries 
sailed to-day for Southeastern Africa. There are 
eight of our number, making twenty in all, who met 
in this city at the same time. We received our in- 
structions together on Sunday evening, the 23d of 
November, in Park Street Church. The meeting 
was crowded, solemn and impressive. The people 
of Boston take a deep interest in the cause of mis- 
sions, and are very hospitable to missionaries. We 
have been kindly entertained since our arrival here. 
Our ship, the Hellespojit, is a very good one, of 340 
tons burden, but she is deeply laden. We shall be 
pent up in small rooms, but they will be large 
enough to hold our Bibles and our God, if our 
spirits are contrite. O yes I and they will often 
seem to hold our dear parents and brethren and 
sisters and all our Christian friends left behind. 
And I trust the perishing heathen will often be 
brought there and presented before our common 
Saviour. . . . You will forgive me all the pain 
an unworthy son has ever caused you, and you will 
not cease to remember me at the throne of grace. 
I shall never cease to bear you on my heart, though 
in distant realms, until we meet in a better country. 
If I know my own heart, the love of Christ and of 
man and a solemn conviction of dutv have led me 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 23 

to leave the country, the altars and the ashes of my 
fathers, with the prospect of returning to them no 
more. 

And now, dearest parents, farewell. The Lord 
bless and cheer and guide you all the way up to his 
* holy hill,' where I hope to meet you through the 
blood of the Cross; and I pray God that some blood- 
washed islander may also meet you there through 
my instrumentality. Then you will not regret my 
leaving my father's house, will you?" 

TO HIS BROTHER, EZRA COAN. 

Ship Hellespont, at Sea, January 27, 1835. — 
"We have been almost two months on ' the great 
and wide sea,' on which are things innumerable, and 
yet we have hardly seen a living thing beneath, 
around, or above us since our embarkation. We 
have now a fair summer sky, with a clear melting 
sun, while you are shivering amidst the howling 
storms and the pale and feeble rays of winter. We 
are off the coast of Buenos Ayres. We are also 
south of the sun, and our distance from him, as well 
as from you, is widening, as he is on his annual tour 
towards our native land, to cheer and bless those 
dear shores we have left forever and those beloved 
friends whom we expect to see no more till we 
meet them in a land that has * no need of the light 
of sun or moon.' You have learned that we left 
Boston on the 5th of December. It was a day of 
deep interest. A large company of friends collected 
on the wharf to witness our embarkation, and to 
unite in one last prayer and one final song of praise 



24 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coafi. 

with us, until we bow around the throne of our Com- 
mon Father, and mingle our voices with the ' great 
multitude,' whose notes are like * many waters and 
like mighty thunderings.' As the sails of our gallant 
ship were unfurled to the breeze, and we glided 
down the smooth bay, and as we exchanged the last 
signals of adieu with weeping friends, and gazed 
upon the city, the temples and hills of the pilgrims, 
as they faded in the distance, we thought d,nd felt 
and wept. But we were not sad. Oh, no! though 
our emotions were tender and strong — they were 
joyful. Our Master left a better country for our 
sake, and his example and the pledges of his pres- 
ence and fellowship were enough to cheer us. 

" Our ship is one hundred and eight feet long, 
twenty-eight feet wide, and eighteen feet deep. 
The lower hold extends the whole length of the 
ship, and is twelve feet deep. This is filled with 
freight. Over this is a floor, making a space 
between the lower hold and the deck six feet deep. 
On this floor a little room is built in the bows for 
the sailors — the forecastle. In the stern is the 
officers' cabin, twelve feet by six feet, and at each 
end of it, opening to the sides of the ship, is a state- 
room, six feet square, for sleeping. Forward of the 
cabin, about five feet, a partition Is thrown across 
from side to side of the ship, forming a space for the 
stairway, pantry, and a baggage-room. Between 
this and the forecastle, a space nearly ninety feet 
long, and embracing the whole width of the ship, is 
the upper hold, which is usually occupied with the 
cargo, and as we missionaries are sometimes 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 25 

esteemed a sort of ' merchandise' or burden to be 
borne, we are put in the place where cargo is usually 
stored. We have four temporary rooms, six feet by 
five feet, built directly in front of the steerage, and 
into these rooms we entered 'two and two.' Our 
rooms are lighted only by one solid piece of glass, 
six inches by two inches, set in the deck over our 
heads. In our room we stowed all that we can have 
access to on the voyage. We have two chests, four 
trunks, a medicine chest and writing desk, several 
bags, bundles, boxes, etc.; a looking-glass, some 
book shelves, a chair, a lamp, a pitcher suspended 
in a cot like a swallow's nest, a berth, garments 
hung around the walls, etc., etc. What a little 
creature man is! and what an insignificant space in 
God's universe he needs to put himself in. I had 
forgotten to tell you that our little room contained 
as happy a husband and wife as ever shone in a 
palace, and besides we often get parents and brothers 
and sisters, and multitudes of dear ones with us, 
and there is room enough for them all; and some- 
times our hearts grow warm and enlarge, and we 
feel that we could entertain all the Church militant 
and the Church triumphant, with our Elder Brother, 
in this little apartment. As our rooms are built two 
on each side of the ship, opposite each other, there 
is a little space in the middle between them which 
is our common sitting room. This is walled up on 
one side with pipes of water, barrels of beef, pork, 
and potatoes, boxes and bales of goods, etc. — a for- 
midable bulwark! In this space you would see a 
few chests, boxes, trunks, and chairs lashed for seats, 



26 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

a washstand or board, a pail, an old lantern sus- 
pended overhead to render darkness visible, and 
multitudes of loose garments dangling from rusty 
nails, and waving in graceful measure with the 
motion of the ship. The light of heaven can enter 
this room in no way but by opening the door or 
removing the hatch overhead. Now, I do not give 
you this description to show you how hard we fare, 
but to gratify you with the picture of facts which I 
know you want. We are all well off, and our ac- 
commodations are as good as they could conveniently 
be made. Captain Henry is very kind, and does 
all he can to make us comfortable. She is a tem- 
perance ship. The captain allows preaching on the 
Sabbath and the distribution of tracts, but no per- 
sonal conversation with the sailors. In the mission 
family we have prayers morning and evening, and a 
Bible-class exercise twice a week. . . . The 
first two or three weeks of our voyage were dread- 
fully boisterous — a violent storm raged almost with- 
out intermission. The wind howled, and the sea 
roared and foamed, and rolled its angry billows to 
the clouds. Our ship is heavily laden, and every 
wave seemed to sweep over her like a log. She 
labored and creaked and groaned as if in the agonies 
of dissolution. But what was worse than this, we 
found that her decks leaked, and during the whole 
storm the cabin and all our rooms were constantly 
drenched — even our beds were insecure; but we 
were obliged to sleep in them wet, with the water 
dripping in our faces. There was no remedy; to 
calk was impossible, and every seaman was at his 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 27 

wits' end to manage the ship and keep her above 
water. For two or three days our company were 
all seasick, and unable to rise or to help one 
another. But out of all these troubles the Lord 
delivered us, and we are now in good health and 
pursuing our voyage prosperously. . . . How 
do you all do? I should love to peep in upon your 
dear circle, but I suppose your little prattlers will 
never more skip about the room with beaming eyes 
and beating hearts and cry: 'Mother! Mother! 
Uncle Titus is coming.' Ask them for me if, after 
the uncle who loves them shall have ended his pil- 
grimage and gone home, as he hopes to, to rest in 
his Father's house in Heaven, he shall ever look out 
from the mansions of bliss and say: 'George Whit- 
field is coming;' ' Charlotte is coming;' ' Henry 
Martin is coming;' ' Fanny Woodbury is coming;' 
* Ezra Titus is coming;' ' Edward Payson is coming.' 
" How do you all do? I ask again. Do your 
souls live, or are you buried up in the world? How 
is the church, the dear church in Byron? Is the 
candle of the Lord shining upon her, or is she walk- 
ing in darkness? Please ask Brother Gray to tender 
the assurance of my undying love to the whole 
church, with the request that they will not cease to 
pray fervently for me, that I may be holy and 
useful. " 

TO HIS FATHER. 

At Sea, May 5, 1835. — "Nearly six months 
have now elapsed since I paid my farewell visit to 
my paternal home and to the scenes of my earliest 



28 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

remembrance, and with these mortal eyes gazed for 
the last time on the dear parent whose anxious toils 
sustained my helpless years, and whose kind hand, 
under God, led my wayward feet from infancy up to 
manhood. A thousand co-mingling recollections — 
joyful, tender, sad — rush upon my miind and unlock 
the fountains of my soul while I write. The seques- 
tered habitation, the fields, the forests, diversions, 
occupations of childhood, the domestic circle, broken 
and dissolved like a charm of night; a mother long 
since silent in the grave, companions scattered wide 
over the earth, or sleeping beneath its" surface; 
strong men bowed under the ' last enemy,' and 
their houses and fields given to others; aged sires 
gone the way of all the earth; everything changed 
or changing — all are marks of mutation, everywhere 
corroborating the solemn truth that ' the fashion of 
the world passeth away,' and that ' we spend our 
years as a tale that is told.' 

" The thought hoAv much needless sorrow I gave 
my parents, how much precious time I more than 
wasted, how much injury I did to my own soul, 
and, above all, how much I abused the long suffer- 
ing of a gracious God, sometimes comes over me 
with melting power. 

" Our voyage, thus far, has been for the most part 
pleasing, with the exception of a terrible storm of 
two or three weeks at the commencement. Our 
ship stopped three weeks at Valparaiso, in Chili, 
and about as long at Lima, the capital of Peru, in 
order to sell some of the cargo. While at Val- 
paraiso I made a tour of one hundred miles inland 



Memorial of Rev. Titiis Coaii. 29 

to the city of Santiago. A little sketch of the tour 
may not be uninteresting to you. My only com- 
panion was Mr. Dimond, one of our mission family. 
There are no stage coaches in Chili, and the only 
carriages for public conveyance are gigs or chaises 
(imported), which only accommodate two passen- 
gers, and are drawn in the following manner: One 
horse is harnessed within the shafts, and another, 
with saddle and bridle, is attached to the carriage 
on the left side by a leather thong from the shafts 
to the saddle girth. On this horse the driver is 
mounted, with massive bludgeon and spurs to urge 
on the team. Behind the carriage two armed men 
follow as guards and assistants, driving before them 
six or eight horses to serve as changes on the way. 
The whole troop of three men and ten or twelve 
horses goes through the whole distance, and when 
a change of horses is wanted, instead of taking them 
fresh from the stall, they are caught from this drove 
with the lasso, and the change is made in the middle 
of the road. 

"Although there is such an array of men and 
horses, yet our fare through was only six and a half 
dollars each. The road is good and the driving rapid. 
Travelers can go through the whole distance, one 
hundred miles, in a day, if they choose. In ascend- 
ing hills, one of the horsemen with the drove rides 
up and hooks his horse to the right shaft, and thus 
the carriage is drawn to the summit by three horses 
abreast. In descending dangerous steeps a horse is 
attached to the hinder part of the gig, and made to 
hold back. 



30 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

"On leaving Valparaiso we first passed a lofty 
range of naked hills, which line the whole coast, and 
which have been rent everywhere by the earth- 
quakes and torrents of Him who * overturneth the 
mountains in his anger,' and ' shaketh the earth out 
of its place.' The fissures and ravines, along which 
we often rode, were of awful depth, and we ascended 
the giddy heights of the mountain by innumerable 
windings and zigzags, cut into its steep and rugged 
sides from the base to the top. After passing these 
hills we crossed an extended plain of twenty-five 
miles in diameter, surrounded by lofty, barren hills. 
We passed one little mud village on the plain, but, 
with this exception, we saw little of animal or vege- 
table Jife. Most of the ground is uncultivated for 
want of water, as it never rains here in the summer. 
Gardens and fields are watered by artificial means. 
When we had crossed the plain, we came to a second 
range of hills, more bold and lofty than the first, 
and seeming on the approach to oppose an impass- 
able barrier. We were, however, carried directly 
over this stupendous wall by a broad road cut in 
innumerable zigzags up and down its almost perpen- 
dicular sides. From the top of this hill we had a 
most magnificent view of the Andes rising in hoary 
majesty like an eternal rampart against the heavens, 
and stretching their everlasting arms as if to span 
the world. From the mountain we descended into 
another vast plain exhibiting the same general 
features of nakedness and drouth as the one we had 
crossed. On this level we passed one village, 
besides many huts scattered along by the wayside. 



Me77iorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 3 1 

Most of the dwellings are built of stakes, brush, 
reeds and mud, without floor or chimney, and in 
our country they would be esteemed too contempt- 
ible even for sheep hovels. They have but one 
room, without chair, bed, or table, and are often 
only eight or ten feet square; and yet they frequently 
furnish the only shelter for more than that number 
of souls. I am speaking now of the houses of 
the poorer class of people. In the cities the 
wealthy and the thrifty have comfortable dwell- 
ings of brick, made after the Egyptian manner by 
mixing cut straw with clay or mud, forming it into 
moulds, and drying it in the sun. 

"Crossing this second plain, we came to the third 
range of mountains, still more lofty and imposing 
than those we had passed. These mountains are 
several thousand feet high, and are ascended in the 
same manner as the others. I think few spectacles 
are more grand and imposing than to stand at the 
foot of this hill and see the multitudes of clumsy ox 
carts (15 or 20 feet long), carriages of passengers, 
troops of horsemen, scattered footmen, droves of 
mules and asses, often fifty or a hundred together, 
and each one carrying a burden as large as himself, 
all moving up and down the steep, some turning to 
the right, some to the left, and seeming to hang from 
beetling heights, as they move along the different 
terraces, one above the other, from the base to the 
top of the mountain. When two-thirds the way up 
this hill, we suddenly emerged from a thick cloud, 
which filled all the valley below, and the sun broke 
upon us with all his splendor, opening a world of 



J- 



Meniorial of Rer. Titus Coan. 



grand, sublime, and romantic scenery upon our view. 
We could look down upon the vast sea of clouds 
beneath us. as upon a map. It had the appearance 
of an immense and unruffled lake, begirt with an 
adamantine wall of amphitheatral mountains, with 
here and there a hilltop rising above the surface like 
a solitary island. 

"Here we saw the heads and hands of two men 
who were lately shot for crimes (the details of which 
are most horrible), committed on the spot. This 
shocking, though salutary example, is made of them 
as a beacon to others. 

'"From the top of this hill the city of Santiago first 
breaks upon the view at a distance of twenty-five 
miles across an extended plain. In rear of the city 
the gigantic Andes lift their snow-crowned summits 
above the clouds, and seem to hang in massive piles 
over the very town; but, on approaching, they are 
found to be several miles distant. The population 
of Santiago is supposed to be 80,000. Though this 
is one of the very best cities in all South America, 
yet there is little here to compare with the blessings 
of our own native land. The inhabitants are sunk 
in ignorance, superstition and sin. There are mul- 
titudes of pr-iests and churches, but the former are 
oftener seen at the cock-fight or the bull-bait than 
at the churches. They seldom preach, and after 
saying Mass on Sunday morning, they often spend 
the day in gambling. Xo religion but the Romish 
is tolerated here. A Protestant clergyman, as suchy 
cannot live in the country. Treachery, murder, 
assassinations, are common. It is said that in 1827 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 2>3 

there were eight hundred assassinations in the 
capital. 

'* It is an acknowledged fact that this republic is 
further advanced in improvement than any of the 
other South American States. But yet ' the people 
perish for lack of vision.' The Romish superstitions 
bind them down in ignorance, in vice, and in death. " 



34 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



IV. 



" Let the lowliest task be mine, 
Grateful so the work be Thine ; 
Make my mortal dream come true 
"With the work I fain would do." 

— Whittier. 



TO HIS BROTHER, HEMAN COAN. 

Honohdu^ June 26, 1835. — " My eyes at last 
behold these ' isles afar off,' and my feet tread on 
these long desired shores. And I would here first 
record the goodness of God in guiding us through 
all the perils of the deep and in bringing us to the 
field of our labors. On the morning of the 5th inst. , 
just six months from the time we lost sight of our 
native land, we first descried the island of Hawaii, 
at the distance of sixty or seventy miles. On the 
morning of the 6th we made this island (Oahu), and 
at 10 A. M. dropped anchor in the harbor. All the 
missionaries of the islands, except two, with their 
wives and little ones, were assembled in general 
meeting at this place, according to their annual cus- 
tom. On hearing of our arrival, Messrs. Bingham, 
Chamberlain and Armstrong carne off to the ship 
in a boat, to welcome and to take us on shore. 
When we landed, we found the band of brethren and 
sisters at the seaside awaiting our arrival and ready 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 35 

to embrace us. Every heart seemed to feel more 
than it could utter. What first struck me with 
peculiar force was the plain attire and simple man- 
ners of the missionaries, but, above all, the wasting 
inroads which climate and toil had evidently made 
on the constitutions of this beloved band of disci- 
ples. From the shore we walked up through the 
town one mile to the mission-houses, where all 
joined in a song of praise and thanksgiving to God, 
and then united in prayer. . . . At half-past 
four P. M. I went with Brother Bingham to the 
chapel. After services Mr. B. introduced me to the 
governess and some of the high chiefs, who ex- 
pressed much joy at the arrival of more teachers on 
their shores. When we turned from our interview 
with the chiefs, the common people pressed around 
me in crowds, each one striving to grasp my hand 
and express his warm welcome. For a long time I 
stood and received the hands of individuals in rapid 
succession, each one expressing his * aloha' (love to 
you) and retiring before the crowd that were press- 
ing for the same privilege. As a great many were 
unable to get near me in the chapel, they arranged 
themselves by the wayside the whole distance from 
the church to Mr. B.'s house, and held out their 
hands as I passed. It was an affecting scene, and 
never have I seen before a people who expressed so 
much gratitude and affection. On the Sabbath we 
attended worship with a company of some fifteen 
hundred. The chapel is one hundred and eighty 
feet long and sixty feet wide. Its framework is of 
p®sts and poles, and it is thatched all over with long 



7,6 MeiJiorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

grass. . The chiefs and people are poorly clad, and 
sit upon mats spread on the ground. By invitation 
of the king and chiefs we had an early and pleasant 
interview with them. They are an enormous race 
of men. Some of them weigh two hundred and 
sixty pounds. They were well dressed, in English 
style, and we were received by them with as much 
ease and courtesy as by the refined in our own 
country. Conversation turned on the readiness with 
which they now received missionaries, compared 
with the reluctance with w^hich they first permitted 
them to land, and it afforded no little amusement to 
themselves, as w^ell as to us, when they told us they 
once thought the missionaries dug their cellars as a 
place of deposit for powder and balls. But these 
jealousies, they say, were in the days of dark hearts. 
The governess of Oahu, Kinau, made a fine supper, 
a few evenings since, for all the missionaries and 
their families, to which she also invited the king and 
head men of the natioil. The whole company num- 
bered more than one hundred. We were received 
into a spacious apartment, furnished with elegant arm 
chairs, sofas, center tables, etc., and lighted with 
large astral lamps. The floor was spread with one 
entire mat, of native workmanship. At the close 
of the interview hymns were sung and a prayer 
offered. ... I long to go into the work. I 
think this is my proper field of labor, and I would 
not go back for the world, unless I knew it to be 
the will of God. There is pressing need of laborers 
here. Thousands who are anxious for instruction 
must die without it unless help can be obtained. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 37 

Our location for the present year will be at Hilo, on 
the island of Hawaii. Our associate is to be Rev. 
Mr. Lyman. We shall probably be two hundred 
and fifty miles from medical aid, and can expect 
none. We have only to trust in God. Dear brother, 
live near to God and labor for souls. If we are 
faithful to our Master vv^e shall soon meet in joy." 

Mr. and Mrs. Coan remained a month in Hono- 
lulu. Then, their location having been assigned by 
the mission, and an opportunity of reaching it pre- 
senting, they went forth to their appointed station. 
Of the passage thither, he writes: 

What rendered the voyage so distressing was 
the crowd, the heat and seasickness. We were in a 
small vessel, probably about one hundred souls. 
Every nook and corner was stowed with living 
beings, half alive, prone, prostrate, lengthwise, cross- 
wise, piled up or scattered in wild confusion, while 
horses, goats, hogs, fowls, calabashes oi poi inter- 
mingled to fill up the ludicrous picture. Almost 
every soul was seasick in good earnest. The deck 
was covered with sad, pale faces, and echoed with 
dismal sounds. Nearly every one kept the deck 
day and night, as the heat and air of the cabin were 
intolerable. On the third day we found ourselves 
driven back to Honolulu. Up to this time my Dear 
and I had not tasted a morsel of food or a drop of 
water; and the thought of another attempt to beat 
against the trade wind was almost enough to sink 
one's soul. However, we braced our minds up to 
the necessity, and the Lord helped us, and brought 
us safely through." 



;^8 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

Hilo was to them at the first, "a picture of loveH- 
ness," and forty years later Mr. Coan could write: 

The ecstatic romance with which I first saw these 
emerald isles has not abated by familiarity or by 
age. The picture is photographed in unfading tints 
upon my heart, and it has become to mie the romance 
of reality. Where can you find within so small a 
space such a collecting, such massing, such blending 
of the bland, the beautiful, the exquisite, the gor- 
geous, the grand and the terrific as on Hawaii ? 
Along the summits of our lofty mountains the God 
of glory thundereth, while the overhanging clouds 
send down the rattling hail and drop the fleecy 
snow. There telluric fires find vent and send up 
columns of melted rocks to the heavens, spreading 
out in baleful glare like a burning firmament. The 
crashing thunder, the vivid lightning, the rending 
earthquake and the bursting volcano we have in the 
near proximity of the peaceful village, the grassy 
landscape, the sweet flower garden, the cultivated 
field, the babbling brook, the tropical fruits and 
ferns, the waving palm, the golden sunshine, the 
stellar vault above and the surrounding ocean whose 
swelling bosom moves with the zephyr and the tem- 
pest, while her white foam girdles with glory our 
rock-bound shores." 

Amid such surroundings the earthly home was 
established. In his journal he wrote, July 30, 1835 : 

" Having prepared a room in Brother Lyman's 
house, we have this day commenced housekeeping 
and established ourselves as a distinct family. The 
Lord be gracious to us." 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 39 

And writing to his brother George he thus de- 
scribes the new home : 

" We Hve in one end of a long, narrow house of 
rough walls of stone laid up in mud, with thatched 
roof. We occupy but one room separate from the 
rest by a mat partition. Our home is rather open. 
Hens come in, now and then, to find their nest with 
us, and rats, mice and IJzards frequently play their 
merry gambols on our floor, walls and roof. None 
of the tenants of our rude habitation are as happy as 
we. We are happy in our union, happy in our work 
and happy in our Redeemer." 

So the key-note is struck, and through the long 
years following, earthly love, and work, and fellow- 
ship with Christ were the chords of an endless song. 
He found work at once, and with him, as with Fen- 
elon, it was ever: '' Do the duty that lies nearest 
tthee." While, for a time, his lips were held by an 
unknown tongue, from direct efforts for the natives, 
he had, as his own words record, ** close, personal 
conversation with captains and sailors," of ships 
stopping at the port of Hilo. There were calls 
every day from sailors enquiring the way of life, and 
solemn meetings when he preached to them. But 
when the new language had been to some degree 
acquired, and three months after landing, he had 
preached his first Hawaiian sermon, he began the 
touring which was to be a marked feature of his after 
Hfe. 



40 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



V. 

" ' Souls ! souls for the kingdom ! ' the battle cry 
Be this through the hottest strife. 
Win glowing stars for thy lustrous crown, 

It were worth all toil and pain ; 
There is other labor for other worlds, 
But never a soul to gain." 

— Mrs. HerricU Johnson. 

The distinctive department of labor at first assigned 
Mr. Coan was the charge of the school at the sta- 
tion and a general oversight of one hundred out 
schools scattered up and down the coast. To the 
people also he must distribute books and administer 
medicines. Afterwards by mutual agreement with 
his associate, Rev. D. B. Lyman, he took the whole 
pastoral charge of the field, while on Mr. Lyman 
devolved the care of the Boys' Boarding School. 
To Mrs. Coan and the new teacher, Mr. Wilcox, ' 
was given the burden of the station and common 
schools. 

Mr. Coan's parish extended by coast line on the 
eastern and northeastern shore of Hawaii, one hun- 
dred miles, and included Hilo and Puna. Fifteen 
thousand natives inhabited these districts, and of 
this multitude only twenty-three were members of 
the church in 1836. Looking out upon his flock, he 
exclaimed, ''These souls, — these perishing souls! 
What I have, mind, body and heart, I am ready to 
devote to them." 

As he gained more knowledge of the language 
he dispensed with written sermons, and preached 
ex tempore. The people were impressed, and con- 
gregations soon increased. Even in the first year 
there were many inquirers and marked manifesta- 



Meinorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 41 

tions of the Holy Spirit's presence. In November, 
1837, a protracted meeting of eight days was held 
at the station. Of that time Mr. Coan wrote: 

"God wrought for us. I opened the meeting with 
a sermon from the text, * Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord.' Great effect was produced. On the second 
day of the meeting God came in terror. The sea 
rose suddenly to the perpendicular height of fifteen 
or twenty feet, and fell in one mountain wave upon 
the shore, sweeping away nearly one hundred houses 
with all their tenants. All was sudden as a peal of 
thunder. No premonitions were given. None had 
time to flee. The scene was awful. Hundreds 
were engulfed in a moment. Cries of distress were 
heartrending, and the roar of the raging sea was 
deafening. To the people the event was as the voice 
of God speaking to them out of Heaven, ' Be ye also 
ready.' 

"Time swept on; the work deepened and widened. 
Thousands on thousands thronged the courts of the 
Lord. Everywhere the trumpet of jubilee sounded 
loud and long, and as clouds and as doves to their 
windows, so ransomed sinners flocked to Christ. " 

A review of Mr. Coan's labors during the earlier 
years of his settlement at Hilo, together with a vivid 
description of his field, is given in a narrative of 
thrilling interest by Rev. S. J. Humphrey, D. D., 
District Secretary of the American Board at Chicago, 
111. ;* while the Missionary Heralds of that period 

*Under the title of "Four Memorable Years at Hilo," it was 
first printed in the Advance and in Missionary Papers No. 16, 
and was then reproduced in the New York Independent. Years 
afterward it was issued in tract form by the "Friends' Tract 
Association," Wilmington, Del. 



42 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

and "Life in Hawaii" also contain records of the 
great awakening. But once more let the marvel- 
lous story be repeated through his own pen, as in 
the midst of incessant toils he dashed off despatches 
to a comrade soldier. 

Fellow-students at Auburn during 1831, Lorenzo 
Lyons and Titus Coan had often conversed together 
concerning the kingdom of Christ, and together 
prayed for its advancement. Afterwards they were 
co-laborers in the same mission, dwelling upon the 
same island for almost fifty years. 

Rev. Mr. Lyons' station, seventy miles from Hilo 
on the east, was at Waimea, on the west, with the 
flaming volcano between. A wearisome road, cross- 
ing rough channels of rushing mountain streams, 
ascending through thickets and deep forests to "an 
open undulating country, sprinkled all over with 
trees, and everywhere traversed with paths of wild 
cattle," separated the two friends, and ma-de visits 
rare; but letters were frequent, and were as glowing 
coals from their consecrated hearts. 

"In reviewing these letters," Mr. Lyons writes, 
"the tears have flowed, and I could not refrain from 
crying aloud. I stood before the picture of my 
sainted brother, and it seemed as if I could almost 
hear him speaking in his soul-inspiring strains. We 
were in deep sympathy, and unbosomed our hearts, 
our joys, our longings to each other." 

Under date of November 24, 1837, Mr. Coan 
reports to Mr. Lyons: 

"We have a glorious work of grace here. Hun- 
dreds think they are converted. How many will 
bring forth fruits meet for repentance remains to be 
seen. That very many are born of God is to my 



Memorial of Rtv. Titiis Coan. 43 

mind as sure as that the Gospel is the power of God 
unto salvation. If I can judge of my own feelings^ 
I never took hold of the work of pulling sinners out 
of the fire with more faith, and more unshaken con- 
fidence of success, than at this time, and I never 
saw God's work more manifest. Only let us preach 
the Gospel in living i^A^^^ and under the awful press- 
ure of the powers of the world to come, and I defy 
the people, stupid as they are, to sleep. Why,, 
they might as well sleep under a cataract of fire.. 
. Write me often, and we will not fail to pray 
for each other. " 

December 25. — "The Captain of our salvation 
is still riding through the field. He must conquer,, 
for all power is his. Why should we ever doubt 
his power or his love ? Why lose his presence 
and his help ? Unbelief is God-dishonoring. Why 
cherish that child of Hell — that soul-murderer? Five 
hundred conversions in your field! I hope there are 
as many in ours. But what are they among the 
thousands left? Some may call this a great work, 
and it surely is glorious. It wakes up sweet and 
loud songs in Heaven. But this work is yet small 
compared to what God wishes to do, and to what 
he will do if our faith fail not. I am sometimes 
sorely tempted of Satan to doubt and fear, and say 
this may be all smoke. God forbid that I should 
yield to such soul-killing suggestions. This is God's, 
work, and it will go on. Our meetings are more 
and more crowded. I preach and talk to multitudes 
every day. One hundred will probably be added to- 



44 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

this church on the first Sabbath in January. Let 
1838 be a year of Jubilee to these islands. God 
help you, my brother. Be strong, go on, do 
valiantly. Fear nothing but sin. Look up; listen 
to the voice that says, *Lo! /am with you always.' 
Preach boldly, plainly, in living faith, in burning 
love, and in high and holy expectation of success. 
If thousands are not converted we shall be red with 
the blood of souls. If these things are so, how can 
we sleep?" 

Early in 1838 Mr. Coan went through Puna, 
holding protracted meetings at different points, and 
under almost every sermon fearfulness took hold on 
sinners. Again he writes: 

January 29. — "At the first village the Holy 
Ghost fell on many that heard the word, and they 
left all and followed from place to place, weep- 
ing as they went. I should hardly dare tell my 
brethren generally what I saw in Puna. Some 
would call it Methodism, some fanaticism, wild- 
fire, etc. I call it the power of God unto salva- 
tion, for I felt it in my soul before it fell upon my 
congregation. And it fell upon them under the 
most bold and searching and simple truth which I 
could present to their minds, and as the most 
unequivocal answer to prayer. . . . On the 
subject of receiving converts soon into the church, 
you and I probably agree. There is neither Scripture 
nor philosophy, nor prudence, in the opposite 
practice. I mean when we get good evidence of 
conversion. I avail myself of every help to learn 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 45: 

the life of every one of the candidates, inquiring inta 
the private and domestic habits of each individual, 
receiving no man simply on his own profession 
of love to Christ. I show the lists to Brother 
Lyman. If he knows anything good or bad of any 
one, he tells it. After this I call all these candidates, 
together and examine them individually in my own 
house. If they appear well I invite them to the 
church meeting, and there they are again examined, 
before the whole church. " 

February 6. — "I thank you for your blessed soul- 
stirring letter. ' Said I not unto thee that if thou 
wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of 
God?' A flood of people here at this time. Crowded, 
crowded, pressed. Hundreds who were alarmed in 
Puna have come on here to hear more of the Gospel. 
I have just closed the children's meeting. The 
house was a Bochim, and before my address was. 
closed my voice was nearly drowned with crying out. 

"Some may be afraid of this, but it is better than; 
a house full of sinners asleep." 

February 13. — "Blessed news! More than twelve 
hundred converts in Honolulu. Blessed work. 
Blessed Savior. Blessed reward. I predict that 
this whole nation is about to be shaken. 

"It is late and I have just dismissed one hundred 
natives from my house whom I have been pointing 
to the Lamb of God. My body is all weak and 
trembling with weariness, but my heart is full of love,, 

joyful in God our Savior What tidings from 

Kohala? Do the banners of salvation wave in glory 



46 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

there? Are the devil's towers down? Are his 
bulwarks fallen? Tell me, Brother Watchman, tell 
me, for my soul is in expectation." 

March 15. — "Probably you have heard ere this 
of the arrival of the ship from Boston. She brought 
the General Letter which tells its own story. God 
is blowing upon the wealth of the American churches, 
and no wonder. They have brought the lame and 
sick and torn to his altar. They have proposed to 
accomplish the glorious plan for which the earth rolls 
and for which Jesus died with that which costs them 
nothing. " 

May 7. — "Take care of your health. You have 
no right to break your earthen vessel too soon. Let 
it wear out, but don't use violence to break it. You 
say that you are about broken down. Then turn 
aside and rest awhile as the disciples did when 
exhausted with toil. Christ allows it. He requires 
it. 

Jtdy 3. . . . "Sabbath was a glorious day here. 
I baptized and received seventeen hundred and five 
to this church. Yesterday I spent the afternoon in 
baptizing the children of the church, several hundreds 
in number. Sinners are coming in from Kau and 
all parts of Hilo and Puna, and hardened rebels are 
constantly breaking down. Some fall, but God's 
work does not fall to the ground. " 

August 28. ... "I should have written sooner 
but have been absent touring two weeks. Have 
returned with arms full of sheaves. Heaven shouts 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 47 

it home, The Gospel was all triumphant. The 
prayers of some were wonderful — heaven-moving, 
heaven - opening. Jesus rode all glorious, all 
mighty to save. God girded a worm for the fight 
and the slain of the Lord were many. 

** Brother Gulick is with us and will stay till after 
the communion; a beloved brother. " 

September 9. — "Comparatively few fall here as 
yet, but O; the tug of battle; the watchirigs, the 
fightings, the toils necessary to keep such a church 
awake and at the post of duty. But I love the 
struggle and God helps me wonderfully. I want to 
fight on till I die. I wish to die in the field with 
armor on, with weapons bright. " 

October 15. — "O for meekness, patience, faith; 
for a single eye that looks right on, and for a soul 
ih'dX presses toward the mark. I pray for that meek- 
ness which commits one's self, motives, measures, 
actions, all to him who judges righteously." 

November 6. . . . "I remember our meeting 
with much joy. How did you get home? How 
find your dear wife and child? Great rains after we 
separated. Drenched continually in my travels. 
Rivers swollen, mad, perilous, and finally impassable. 
Hindered on my way and took a canoe. 

"The voice of agonizing prayer breaks the stillness 
of the evening on every hand. Let envy and malice 
sneer, let skepticism cavil, let cold prudence caution, 
and let timidity tremble. Still the work goes on. 
To God only wise be the glory. My lips shall 
praise him, my soul shall bless him. 



48 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

"Last Sabbath was our communion. Multitudes, 
multitudes assembled. The number of communi- 
cants was so large that I was obliged to divide them 
for want of room in the meeting house. In the 
morning broke bread to the Puna division, in the 
afternoon to the Hilo. Yesterday was monthly 
concert. Probably three or four thousand people 
contributed in labor and other ways on the occasion. 
Were their labor available as in the United States 
the contribution of yesterday would not fall much 
short of one thousand dollars, but as it is, alas! it 
may not amount to ten. May we be agents under 
God in bringing about better days. . . . Brother 

writes me strong reproofs and remonstrances 

about measures, etc. I know that I am ignorant 
and foolish. Oh, that some of these kind and 
anxious brethren would show me ' a more excellent 
way. 

December 23. — "I have been absent on a tour of 
eighteen days in Puna. I have returned weary, 
lame and sore, but rejoicing. I was much cheered 
by the steadfastness of the church; nearly all appear 
well. Out of two thousand church members in that 
district only ten are Avandering. May the Good 
Shepherd preserve them into his heavenly king- 
dom. This field, my dear brother, is all battle 
ground. It belongs to Jesus. Satan disputes the 
title, contends for every inch of the ground, and 
fights hard on the retreat. If you find any of my 
sheep scattered and wandering in your field, you 
will do me a great favor to look after them. I shall 
ever esteem it a privilege to do the same by the sheep 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 49 

and lambs of your fold who may chance to wander, 
or to feed in this field. ... I have many joyful 
feelings, and many which are solemn and almost 
overpowering. For some of my little children I 
travail in birth again and again until Christ be formed 
in them. So it is with you. Let us hold on, my 
brother, for we shall reap if we faint not. There is 
glory in the prospect. The crown of life ! O! I see 
it, all glittering, all glorious." 

February 25, 1839. — "You say there will be 
noise where there is fighting and conquering. This 
is true, and there will be much noise before the 
world is converted to God. But I have little fear of 
the noise of praying Christians and wailing sinners, 
if so be the wailing is confined to time. In eternity 
it will roll up fearful and augmenting notes forever 
and ever. The most dangerous noise in a revival 
springs up, not, perhaps, from the devil, nor from 
scoffers and open opposers, but from false or timid, 
or dictatorial friends. I feel sure of this fact, and 
the whole history of the church presents an array of 
proof to this position." 

March 10. — "It is Sabbath evening and I am 
weary. What I most fear is that the devil is not 
effectually dislodged from my own heart. There he 
effects an entrance, sometimes by open assault, 
sometimes in disguise. I shall conquer, for Jesus has 
bought me with a price. We do not run uncertainly; 
we do not fight as one that beateth the air. 'Lo! I 
am with you,' there my heart rests. On that rock I 
stand and bid the ocean rage and dash beneath; 



5o Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

clasping that pillar of the eternal throne, I bid earth 
roll and tempests howl. ... I think I shall go to 
the General Meeting, though I feel deeply pained at 
the thought of leaving my people; I fear they will 
wander. But I want to see my Brethren, I want to 
engage in the deliberations of the Mission, as there 
will be important questions before us. I wish to 
represent this part of the field in person, and I need 
relaxation, as I have not rested one day for two years. 
Still I will not leave unless I hear the voice of my be- 
loved Captain saying, 'Turn aside and rest awhile.' " 

AiLgiLst 2. — (After a tour through Hilo.) "The 
whole mass of the people was moved as by one 
mighty impulse, and the wave of salvation seemed 
to roll broader and deeper through all the course till 
I reached the station. Scarcely a careless sinner 
was left unarrested. Crowds followed me from place 
to place, weeping and inquiring the way to Zion. I 
worked incessantly from morning to night and some- 
times until midnight. I reached home rather way- 
worn and exhausted in body, but my heart is 
exceedingly strengthened in the Lord, my soul is 
lifted up, and my spirit triumphs in my Redeemer." 

Mr. Coan's frequent correspondence with Mr. 
Lyons continued through his life, but other letters 
than those from which extracts have been given 
were not preserved. The notable characteristic of 
steadfastness in Mr. Coan was strongly marked in 
his friendships. Names that occur on the first 
pages of his Synopses of Letters are found on the last. 
It was only as friend after friend crossed the flood 
and passed beyond the reach of voice or pen, that his 
name dropped out of the list of correspondents. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 5 i 



VI. 



"Kind messages, that pass from land to land; 
Kind letters, that betray the heart's deep mystery." 

— Longfellow. 

"O what am I, that I should live myself in the constant relish 
of thy sweet and sacred truth, and with such encouraging suc- 
cess communicate it to others?" 

— Baxter. 

While from month to month, Mr. Coan wrote his 
island neighbor, the friends abroad were not for- 
gotten. Already had he begun a correspondence 
that became extensive, embracing between the years 
1836 and 1882 four hundred and fifty names of 
individuals to whom he addressed about three thou- 
sand letters, not including the even larger number 
to island residents. Of the former he made synopses. 

The amount seems rem.arkable, but he wielded a 
ready pen, and through his busy life, caring for the 
moments was the secret of his accomplishing so much. 

Early writing to beloved kindred he said of letters: 

* 'There is no earthly luxury more sweet to us 
than a good liberal bundle of them. Could I 
increase my time and my power of writing as much 
as I can expand my heart with love, you would all 
have speedy and full answers. But you have no 
idea how little my time is at my command. Let me 
say, in a word, that quack as I am, I am the only 
physician for a thousand bodily maladies, and am 
liable to be called at any moment by the cry of dis- 



52 Memoj'ial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

tress. Then I am the pastor for thousands of church 
members with their cliildren. I must be arbiter or 
judge to settle their Httle difficulties which come up, 
as they did before Moses, from morning till night. 
Then funerals, sometimes two or three daily, besides 
almost daily preaching, with frequent tours and 
nameless cares. I have written this letter inch by 
inch; it is more than a week since I commenced it. 
Am often called from my study before I have written 
half a sentence, and as often kept out of it for days 
together. . . . Tell us of those events which would 
form the subject of inquiry and conversation were we 
to meet. This brings Home right before us, with 
its bright fireside, its endearing circle and all its 
cherished scenes. All the precious things about 
which the memory loves to linger, will be sealed up 
in everlasting oblivion to the distant missionary 
unless his private friends will, by their letters, fill 
this aching void, unless they will satisfy these 
natural and longing desires. My heart swells while 
I write, and melts while I think of you. But 
stronger cords, yes, stronger than death, bind me to 
the Savior and to the brethren for whom he died." 

These cords bound him to the blessed cause of 
that Savior's kingdom, drawing him into warm fel- 
lowship and large correspondence with those 
engaged in organizations of benevolence and evan- 
gelization. He wrote many letters to the Secretaries 
of the Bible, the Peace, the Temperance, the Sea- 
man's Friend, the American Missionary Societies, 
and to the officers of the A. B. C. F. M. These 
were often published and ''were ever found," as Dr. 
Beckwith, Secretary of the Peace Society writes. 



Memo?' ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 53 

"very acceptable to the readers. The thoughts 
themselves are invariably good, but it is the spirit 
pervading and impregnating them that makes our 
friends like them so much. " 

To Societies of Missionary Inquiry and of Natural 
History, connected with colleges and theological 
seminaries, he wrote full answers to questions asked 
by them. His letters on volcanic phenomena have 
been widely circulated in scientific works. 

But it was in letters to kindred and to friends, 
circles ever narrowing, ever widening, that he penned 
those gems of thought, those heart sentiments that 
made every word precious to those addressed. To 
these we turn, not so much to follow the events of 
the remaining forty years of his pilgrimage, as to 
linger in the atmosphere of his loving personality, 
and to be helped by his notes of faith and joy to an 
attainment of that calm, devout spirit which bears 
witness to the presence and Fatherhood of God. 

TO PITS SISTEK. 

October 16, 1837. . . "Your two kind letters of 
August and September, 1836, reached us the 21st of 
April, 1837. If you could see and know how much 
letters cheer and refresh us, you would never regret 
the labor in costs to write. I was happy that you 
wrote so many facts. Don't think that I shall not 
be interested to hear how many cows and sheep 
father keeps, how much hay he makes, and how 
much corn and rye he raises. All things which 
relate to the temporal as well as the eternal happi- 
ness of my beloved parents are none the less 
interesting to nfe because eighteen thousand miles 
of ocean roll between us. I care not how little cider 
is made from father's orchard; the less the better, to 



54 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

my mind, because I am very sure that cider clouds 
the mind, sours the temper and injures the health. 
I feel very certain that it has done much evil among 
the farmers of New England. I drink nothing but 
water. It is the pure nectar of heaven. It comes 
to us limpid and fresh and free from the hand of our 
heavenly Father. Those who are fond of stimulating 
drink may say that cold water will do for me as they 
suppose that my labor is light. But this is a great 
mistake. In preaching the Gospel to this poor, 
dyingpeople, I climb mountains and precipices, cross 
deep and dangerous ravines, ford or swim rapid 
rivers, travel from morning till night in drenching 
rain, endure the melting power of a tropical sun, 
endure weariness and painfulness. Thus I often 
travel from week to week preaching four and five, 
and even eight times a day, and at night I lie down 
to sleep on the ground more weary than the mower 
and the reaper return at night from the sultry 
harvest field. But my sleep is sweet, my heart is 
peaceful and my meditations are joyous. In the 
morning I rise refreshed and pursue my way among 
the poor, fainting people, who are as sheep without a 
shepherd. With a simple diet and with nothing but 
cold water for drink, I have not enjoyed better 

health for ten years than at present 

"We now live in a good frame house built by Mr. 
Goodrich; and the fruits of the land are abundant. 
The natural scenery of Hilo is the most beautiful I 
ever saw. The interior of this and of all these islands 
is little less than a vast pile of mountains; where 
they are not too high they are covered with vegeta- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 55 

tion to their summits. Great quantities of snow fall 
on the mountains of Hawaii. Their base is encircled 
by a deep, heavy forest. The shores and valleys are 
usually the most fertile, and very few of the natives 
live more than a mile from the sea. The island on 
which we live is much the largest of the group. 
Hilo and Puna extend a hundred miles along the 
eastern and southern shores and contain a population 
of fifteen thousand souls. All that is done for this 
multitude as 1 to schools and their eternal welfare 
must be done by us and our associates at this station. 
This whole extended coast can be traversed only on 
foot and that with incredible fatigue. In passing 
through the district north of us, we are obliged to 
cross more than sixty deep ravines and as many 
rapid streams that come roaring and leaping from 
the mountains, and urging their noisy way to the 
ocean. Sometimes we let ourselves down precipices 
by our hands; sometimes our narrow path winds 
along the brow^ or the side of the precipice where 
the deviation of half a foot from the track would 
plunge us hundreds of feet below. In Puna, on the 
south of us, the shores are little less than one ex- 
tended field of lava, covered in some places with a 
shallow soil, and in others stretching off" like a naked 
rock for the distance of ten or twenty miles, showing 
beyond all question that it was once one vast molten 
sea whose waves of liquid fire rolled and raged like 
old ocean in a storm. Thus the fiery flood cooled, 
leaving all the inequalities of a lake when agitated 
by a tempest. There are no streams of water in 
this district. The water runs under the lava, at great 



56 Memorial of Rei'. Titus Coaii 



depths until it finds the level of the ocean. 
I have many more things to say, nor can I tell 
all without writing a dozen sheets, and this sterner 
duties forbids. Write me often, dear sister, let me 
hear that you love the Lord with all your heart. 
Tell me what God has done for your soul, what you 
have done for God, what you are doing and what 
you intend to do for him. My heart has been full 
of anxiety for your spiritual welfare. 

"I rejoice that dear father and mother were 
so well when you wrote. Do all you can, Mary, 
to make them happy. It would give me great 
pleasure to be near them and to cheer them in 
old age, did I not feel a most solemn assurance that 
God has called me to preach the Gospel to the 
heathen. Could the dearest friend I have on earth 
see the wretched and forlorn condition of the dying 
thousands around me, he could never wish to call 
me from my work of leading them to the Lamb of 
God, while one particle of the love of Jesus burnt in 
his bosom. I have never had any misgivings as to 
my duty to labor and die for this people. I could 
not leave them without violating the most solemn 
convictions of conscience. I would not exchange 
my humble toil among them for the throne of 
England. " 

TO HIS BROTHER, GEORGE. 

April 2, 1882. — "I have glorious things to say of 
Hilo and Puna. For more than a year past I have 
been able to preach in the native tongue with a good 
degree of clearness and fluenc}', and I have seen 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 57 



such power and glory attend the Word as I have 
never seen in any other land. Sometimes almost 
the whole congregation broke out in wailings of 
anguish. A quaking took hold on them, and they 
cried 'What shall we do to be saved.' Native con- 
verts prayed with such fervency as would seem to 
break the bars of heaven. God heard and answered 
speedily; and he answered in the very thing asked 
for. He rent the heavens and came down. 

"At one place where I preached, there was an 
old and hardened chief who neither feared God, nor 
regarded man. I preached to him fearlessly, 
personally, pointedly; calling him by name and in 
the presence of his people, I charged home his guilt 
upon him, and in the name of the Lord, urged him 
to immediate repentance. He was much moved 
and promised repentance the first day, but I was not 
satisfied that his proud heart was broken. 

"On the second day I renewed the charge. He 
stood the siege for awhile, but at length his feelings 
became insuppressible, and all on a sudden he broke 
forth in a cry which almost rent the heavens. The 
sword of the Spirit was in his veins. He submitted 
on the spot and appears like a new born-babe. 
The effect of this scene on the congregation was 
overwhelming. The place was shaken. Multitudes 
cried out for mercy and multitudes turned to the 
Lord. I could tell you many similar facts. ... If 
you could see how we are thronged day and night! 
For six months it has been like one protracted 
meeting. God has done great things for us. I feel 
like lying in the dust and adoring his grace. Let 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



heaven and earth praise him! Have the prayers of 
those American church members who forsake the 
monthly concert called down these blessings on the 
Sandwich Islands? 

TO HIS SISTER. 

September ii, 1839. — "We are well and happy, 
thrice happy in our work. Our temporal circum- 
stances are much more pleasant than we had ever 
expected on heathen ground — a strong contrast to 
my solitary pilgrimage in Patagonia. The climate 
is salubrious and vegetation luxuriant. Byron's Bay 
is a fine and safe harbor, a beautiful, broad sheet of 
water, defined by a crescent sand-beach, and fringed 
with perennial green. Ships and sm.all vessels visit 
us often, and it is not long since we were visited by 
two English ships of war. Intelligent and scientific 
travelers from the different countries of Europe and 
from America come to Hilo for the sake of ascending 
the snow-capped mountains and descending into the 
burning volcano in our vicinity. A saw-mill is in 
operation near us, and two merchants are established 
but a short distance from our door. Americans, 
Englishmen, etc. , are settling around us, and civiliza- 
tion is fast going on here. Some of the foreigners, 
however, are so wicked as to uncivilize and unhinge 
everything were it in their power. It cannot be long 
before Hilo becomes a place of much business, and 
the residence of many foreigners. Its natural 
advantages are great and need only to be known 
to be seized upon by a money-making and soul- 
neglecting world. During the month of May and a 



Memorial of Re7\ Titus Coan. 59 

part of June of the present year, I was at Honolulu, 
on the Island of Oahu, attending the annual general 
meeting of the mission.* Your sister F. did not go 
with me this year, but remained at Hilo to teach her 
school and to look after the people. She has now a 
boarding-school of twenty little girls under her care, 
all of whom are fed, clothed, lodged, governed and 
taught daily by her. The girls are from six to ten 
years old and they live happily and peacefully 
together. Most of them are hopefully converted. 
The house they occupy was built by the voluntary 
labors of the people, and their food is supplied from 

week to week by contribution Oh Mary, 

take care of your heart. Don't let the world ensnare 
you. Remember you have a soul to provide for and 
an eternity of bliss or woe before you. Read the 
Bible miLch. Read good books. Read with a 
dictionary and with thought. Draw books from the 
library; borrow, bicy. Be more anxious to get a good 
library and a good store of knowledge than to get 
raiment and money. ... I remember my old 
neighbors and school-fellows with much affection and 
many prayers. Time and distance have not obliter- 
ated the memory of country, kindred and friends, 
nor quenched my love to the scenes of my childhood. 

*It was during a previous visit to the metropolis that Mr. Coan 
wrote, "We are at Brother Bingham's, and have found in him 
and Mrs. B. the most warm-hearted and sincere friends. They 
call us their children, and tell us when we come to Honolulu to 
'come straight home.' Sister Bingham is surely one of the most 
affectionate, meek, self-denying and childlike Christians I ever 
saw. But her toils are probably nearly over. She has been 
brought very low, and though still moving about, and full of care 
for others and for the kingdom of Christ, yet I hardly expect 
to see her after this separation, till I see her robed in white before 
the Throne. " 



6o Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

But these things are changing, passing. We are 
strangers and pilgrims. Brighter scenes are before 
us. Let us press forward, looking upward and 
hasting to reach heaven. " 

TO HIS BROTHER, EZRA. 

October 15, 1839. — "I have from time to time 
written to my friends of the progress of the work of 
grace among this poor people. The work has been 
excellent and glorious. In its awakening and over- 
ruling power it has far exceeded anything of the 
kind I ever witnessed in America. I look to the 
life, to the conversation, to the actions for proof of 
the regenerating work of the spirit, and such evidence 
I find in the peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, of 
thousands who were once hateful and hating one 
another. The mass of the people, old and young, 
in my parish profess to have been converted. About 
seven thousand have been baptized and received to 
the church. I am pressed above measure with 
watchings and preaching, and with cares and toils 
which cannot be told. But the grace of God is 
sufficient and he sustains me wonderfully. I am 
preaching almost incessantly, and in my narrow 
sphere I am determined, through the grace of God, 
fully to preach the Gospel of Christ. Much of the 
time I am absent on tours, traveling over burning 
lava, fording and swimming rapid and dangerous 
rivers, climbing rugged and slippery precipices, and 
preaching in doors and out of doors, in wind and 
rain, sunshine and shade, as the circumstances may 
be. I am often unavoidably exposed by rains, wet 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 6 r 

garments, etc. But I am sure that labor, and some- 
times hardship even, is the best physic for man. I 
need not tell you that I am exceeding joyful in all 
these labors. This fruit from among the Gentiles,, 
these children, these sheaves, these crowns of rejoic- 
ing, while they cause cares and anxieties, they swell 
the heart with gratitude and hope and joy. And 
now to fit my people for the church triumphant, and 
to meet them there. This is my solemn work. " 

Hardly had the four memorable years passed by,, 
when there were those trials of faith and fans to win- 
now the church that led him to write: 

*T see much that might frighten and chase a 
faint-hearted soldier. Powei*ful causes have been 
operating to quench the spirit and to turn off the 
attention of the people from the great concerns of 
eternity. But still, " he adds, " my soul exults in hope. 
Can God give his heritage to reproach? Shame on 
us if we despond. Confusion on us if we flee or fear." 

Some of the adverse influences are mentioned in 
the following letter to a brother: 

January 20, 1841. — "Romanism is using all the 
efforts which flattery, subtlety, malice, bigotry and 
terror can command to overthrow the faith of the 
people and to supplant the religion of the Bible on 
these shores. Eight or ten Popish priests are said to 
be already here, and fifteen more are expected soon. 
They will soon plant themselves at all our important 
posts. As yet they have not gained a large number 
of proselytes, but their old leaven is diffusing and 
poisoning the minds of many. But one of our 



62 Memoi'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

greatest evils is that the government has signed a 
treaty to admit ardent spirits into the land, and this 
has rolled back the flood of intemperance upon the 
nation from which they had but just escaped, and 
now the chiefs can make no laws to protect their 
people from the burning scourge without being 
branded by the French consul, and others of his 
stamp, Avith a breach of treaty and threatened with a 
war of swift retribution. So drunkenness has 
returned with bloated visage and fiery eyeballs, and 
seating himself on his magazines of death, deals out 
his vials of burning wrath. . . . The Vinceiuies^ 
with the commander of the squadron, is now here, 
and has been lying at anchor for fifty days directly 
in front of our house. I suppose the expenses of this 
single ship, in full view from my study window, have 
been more during her stay at these islands, than 
those of this mission with all ij;s operations for a 
year, and I have no doubt that more is annually 
expended by this little exploring squadron, than by 
the whole American church in the propagation of the 
Gospel among the heathen. When will as much 
zeal be displayed in exploring and subduing the 
world to Jesus, as in subduing and subjugating its 
resources and its glories to earthly princes?" 

The influences of this expedition were such upon 
the natives, that for years; as Mr. Coan says in his 
book, "the moral tone of the church and community 
could not be fully restored to its cheerful and normal 
state." 

TO CAPT. S. F. DU PONT, U. s. N. 

Jtine 7, 1850. — "Your highly esteemed favor of 
Sept. '49 was received on the ist inst. I need not 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. d^^ 

say that in common with all its predecessors, it met 
with a cordial and w^arm welcome. The box also 
came in perfect order and is received with great 
gratitude. Like all tokens of true love it is priceless. 
The books, especially Nineveh^ are what we longed 
to get hold of. Nothing could have been more 
opportune or acceptable. A short time ago I 
lectured to my people on the ancient history, the fall 
and the recent disentombing of that vast Assyrian 
city. The facts stated were fresh in the recollection 
of many when your books came. The volumes 
were taken into our monthly lectures and the plates 
exhibited, as illustrating and corroborating what the 
natives had before heard. I need not say that they 
excited enthusiastic interest. We anticipate a treat 
in reading the works you sent. How surely dis- 
coveries and all true science go to confirm and eluci- 
date the truths of our precious Bible! 

"We are happy to learn that you arrived safely at 
home and that you are now with your dear family. 
Perhaps, however, you are, ere this, away again upon 
the deep or in the port of some distant land. But 
wherever you are, our prayers, our blessings, our 
warmest desires for your present and eternal welfare 
shall be with you. Wherever you roam and wher- 
ever you rest, may you hold communion with the 
Savior, and find that God is ever present and ever 

felt And here, my beloved brother, let 

me from my very soul reciprocate the catholic, the 
truly Christian sentiment expressed in your letter 
'without a shadow of sectarian feeling.' I love the 
image, the spirit of Christ wherever seen, and as to 



64 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

7 ^ 

names and forms and organizations let these be left 
to the tastes, convictions and circumstances oi the 
different members of the household of faith. I love 
the Episcopal church ardently, and I highly esteem 
and warmly love many of her clergy and her laity. 
I also love other evangelical denominations who hold 
the Head and feel the Love which unites all the 
saints on earth and in heaven in one body, in one 
holy brotherhood. 

"We remember your visit to our rural home with 
true interest, and hope that it may be repeated. 
How delighted we should be to see you and your 
dear wife in our happy circle. My beloved has 
written Mrs. .Du Pont, inviting her and yourself to 
make us a visit. Science and art have leveled 
mountains, raised valleys, dried up rivers and anni- 
hilated space. Probably the time will come when 
our material corporeities may pass from these islands 
to New York in twenty-five days, and our winged 
spirits in twelve. How long will it be ere a train of 
fiery chariots will be seen crossing your western 
mountains and a line of smoky leviathians be 
descried lashing our deep waters and tracing a rapid 
wake from the shores of western America to these 
sea-girt isles. How long will it be ere aerial horse- 
men, outstripping lightning, will announce upon the 
shores of the Pacific the thoughts, the emotions, the 
rush, the wonders of the Orient shores? And is not 
the hand of the Lord in all this? Is He not preparing 
the way for the rapid and universal spread of the 
gospel of Peace? Does he not design to consecrate 
and employ all these rapid and mighty agencies in 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 65 

fulfilling his great purposes of love and in flooding 
this dark world with his glory? Do we not see in 
the discoveries and inventions of the age a fore- 
shadowing of the wings of that mighty angel who is 
flying through the midst of heaven having the ever- 
lasting Gospel to preach to all nations? But I was 
inviting our dear friends, Capt. and Mrs. Du Pont, 
to visit us, and I had already brought you here on 
a current of electricity. 'How fleet is the glance of 
the mind. ' Still the forests wave, the prairies spread, 
the granite mountains rise and old ocean rolls 
between us! How much less friction in theory 
than in experiment. 

"Our little Bethel or seaman's chapel is completed, 
and it is very useful. It is worth four times what it 
cost. We have English services in it most of the 
year. I have already obtained about two hundred 
volumes of good books for it, besides periodicals, 
Dr. Jewett's plates of the human stomach and some 
other paintings. We shall never forget the lift which 
the Cyane gave to the enterprise. Since you left 
we have received $30.50 from the officers of the 
Preble, $104 from the Independence, and $119 
from the Ohio. Forty or fifty of the Preble's men 
subscribed cheerfully but Commander G. would not 
authorize the purser to pay 

" In the spring of 1 839, we had a beautiful eruption 
in the old crater on the summit of MaunaLoa at the 
very spot where Wilkes encamped. The crater is 
deep and ample, and the fusion exhausted itself 
without overflowing the rim. At the distance of 
Hilo it was a pretty, not a terrific sight. A beauti- 



66 Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 

ful cloud pillar stood on the mountain summit by 
day, and this was converted into a pillar of fire by 
night. It was a beacon light. It was heaven's high 
monument, whose apex pierced the clouds, and 
whose pedestal was the everlasting hills. Thus it 
stood a lofty column shining in its solitary height for 
about two months, when the breath that kindled, 
extinguished it. I longed to visit it but could not. 
To have stood upon the verge of the deep caldron 
and looked down upon the fiery billows raging in 
the abyss below must have filled one with awe. Old 
Kilauea has had no freaks of horrid sport since you 
were here. The great boiling lake which you saw 
is now dammed over with a solid roof of hot lava, the' 
apex of which is some seven hundred or eight hun- 
dred feet higher than was the surface of the fire lake 
in 1840. Steam and gases are constantly issuing 
from a thousand holes and fissures over the crater, 
but scarcely a spark of fire is to be seen by day or 
night. In fact Mother Pele has buried her fires, 
stopped her forges, extinguished her lamps and 
retired within the deep recesses of her infernal 
caverns. Is she dead? Does she sleep? or has she 
only closed her adamantine doors, and with Pluto 
and Vulcan descended to the fiery bowels of the 
earth to prepare with deeper secrecy her magazines 
of wrath which shall one day burst forth with more 
desolating terror? To us it is a lonely idea that the 
volcano should become extinct; for we confess that 
her mutterings, her thunderings, her flashings, the 
smoke of her nostrils and the shaking of her rocky 
ribs are music, beauty, sublimity and grandeur to 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 67 

us. They seem so like the voice of Almighty God, 
so like the footsteps of Deity. 

"You allude to the subject of war and you say that 
all war is wrong. That is, I think, a true proposi- 
tion. On the question whether it be lawful for a 
disciple of Christ to engage in it, much may be said 
on both sides. I prefer what I esteem the safej' 
side, still there are many sincere Christians and men 
whom I ardently love who have been trained to the 
profession of arms. It is my opinion that if all 
professed Christians of every name would, both in 
doctrine and practice, decidedly discountenance Avar, 
the evil would soon cease in Christendom by a moral 
necessity. But the world is not yet prepared for 
such a new and strange doctrine. Nor has the 
church faith enough to try the experiment. But the 
good Lord will accomplish it in his time. It is a 
consummation of love such as I know your heart as 
well as mine devoutly desires. We will then pray 
that the 'Prince of Peace' may reign from east to 
west and from pole to pole, and that there may be 
truly and universally 'peace on earth and good will 
among men.' " 

TO HIS FATHER. 

December y 1852. — ''God has prolonged your life 
wonderfully. When I received my last letter from 
Mrs. Lord, I rejoiced and wept to hear that you 
were still on earth. She tells me your head is snowy 
white. I think I can see it now. And I can see 
your aged and enfeebled frame as it draws near that 
bourne from which it will never return. You have 



68 Memifrial cf Rev, Titus Coam, 

^r'r.zts^ti :ae events of almost a centurj- : :he friends. 
r'-.e : : ". _ .-r.i : as of your youth are nearij- aii gone, 
ir. i } ou SLand like one of a few scattered trees of a 
forest which has been prostrated by the winds of 
heaven. To you this world must now look soUtary. 
My heart saddens when I think of your solitude, but 
I look upward :: ?. : r i here '=.'.'. is ii^h: and joy 
and life; to a lar. i .ert : .z:t ..re no shadows, no 
mourners, no soUtar\^heir:s Z'::.zt^ may you rest, 
and :/.rre r..:. r.tt: :--V. your children. I do 

pray :/ .: : : :: :. i ::?. it calm and peaceful, that 
your iove may :e ^rti: : :- faith strong, your 
hope hvely. Itvvoiixd ze ^ : :v'".e to 'js to meet 
again ir. eirth" but ::'.:s ;?.:.:: :e r::cected. 
Should I -c£.± :i T 5ii.::is :i r . "-- - : - :^ i;:-rdly 
expect to find you in yc ur ear:/.; .: -e 3ur 
great desire si : i :i : e :o do and to surier aii :he will 
of G:i. sad to be crer?-rei : e -:er i .::• the rest 
which remaineth :': r is re rie My friends must 
not grieve too much if I ss.; : : :i em as Paul did to 
his friends, that they shaii see r:. :"ice no more. I 
have a great work to do, a : . i ^ i . : " r ~ : s s : : n to fulfill, 
and no money, no attadur. e r. : :: : : .:r r.^^ recol- 
lections of duldbood and y : ::i. r. : :. e i : :. -finrs to 
re\'isit home scenes, r. : rer.eer : rs :: i: . rri ind 
no earthly motive Z3.r. cersuiie r.e :: ie e :i s 
blessed calUng. Not that I i: e r.^re.:s :.:.i 
brothers less, "rut that I love Cirris: sr.d his work 
more. Since my first enUstment ir :i r varfare, I 
have never doubted, never regretted, never looked 
back, never sighed for objects left behind, never 
wished a dischs'^e. And God ha? granted signal 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 6g 

success to our weak and worthless labors. Through 
his grace I have been permitted to baptize and 
receive to his table more than ten thousand souls 
from among this heathen people. Of these spiritual 
children I have buried more than four thousand 
three hundred, and they have gone before their final 
judge. For these my cares and toils have ended. 
But nearly six thousand remain, and these call for 
more love and faith and patience than man can 
obtain from himself Nothing but the grace of 
Christ in them and in their pastor, will ever secure 
their perseverance in the truth and their final victory 
over the world. There are yet those out of the ark, 
blinded, besotted, hardened in sin. These call for 
constant prayer and teaching, and from among these 
the Lord is adding to the church. . . . Should 
your Titus, the boy who often grieved your heart, 
be permitted through divine grace to meet you in 
heaven with a few thousands of blood-washed 
Hawaiians, you will not, surely, regret our short 
separation, or feel that a want of filial love led me to 
forsake my father's house to toil and die in this land 
of strangers and among the tawny sons of the Pacific. 
We believe the Lord led us here, and to Him we 
yield our all. " 



7o Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



VII. 

" Thy power, Thy love, Thy faithfulness, 
With lip and life I long to bless. 
Thy faithfulness shall be my tower, 
My sun Thy love, my shield Thy power. " 

There was in Mr. Coan's nature a remarkable 
adaptability to minister to the little ones. This 
endeared him to them. Throughout his missionary 
life his almost yearly attendance at the general 
meeting was hailed both by parents and children as 
a special blessing to the young, many of whom will 
never forget his tender earnestness to lead them to 
Jesus. 

The children of his own flock received him with 
joyous acclamations as he came among them on 
his tours, and in Hilo and Puna there Avere frequent 
duplicates of the scene so pleasantly described on 
page 170 of " Life in Hawaii." 

Writing to the widow of his brother George, in 
February of 1855, he speaks of having just held ten 
grand juvenile temperance anniversaries in different 
parts of his great parish. 

"These," he adds, "are truly gala days with the 
boys and girls of Hawaii, and not less so with many 
of their parents. You would be charmed with their 
picturesque appearance, as they march and counter- 
march with flags and gay decorations, and with the 
sweet notes of the flute and the harmony of vocal 
music. In one procession they exhibited two 
hundred and forty-five horses, caparisoned and 
mounted. " 



Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 7 1 

It was not strange that with this children's friend 
should originate the plan of enlisting them to build 
"a little ship" to wait upon the Master. While in 
Honolulu in the spring of 1855, he thus wrote on 
behalf of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association to 
the Secretaries of the A. B. C. F. M.: 

"Recent indications of Providence lead us to 
believe that a wide door is being opened for the 
enlargement of our operations in Micronesia. Other 
communications will inform you of the departure of 
our dear Brother and Sister Pierson, with two prom- 
ising native helpers, on board the bark Belle y 
Captain Handy, to cruise some three or four months 
among the Radack and Ralick chains and the 
Kingsmill groups, and then to proceed to Strong's 
Island. 

"From Captain H., who has cruised much of his 
time for the last seventeen years among these 
numerous islands, we have gathered many important 
and encouraging facts in relation to regions hitherto 
unexplored by scientific expeditions, and nearly 

unknown to the scientific world So 

deeply impressed are we that the Lord has called 
us to preach the Gospel there, and so confidently do 
we expect a favorable report from our Brother 
Pierson, that we feel constrained to ask your imme- 
diate and earnest consideration on the subject of a 
prompt enlargement of your operations among the 
lost families of Micronesia. " 

Stating the number of American missionaries for 
which it was thought best to ask, and expressing 
the hope that a native agency might be chiefly 



72 Me7norial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

employed for many years in introducing the rudi- 
ments of Christianity among the savage tribes, he 
goes on to present "another request, made after 
much reflection and deHberation:" 

"We desire that you will purchase, or procure 
built, a clipper schooner of 150 or 200 tons, of sub- 
stantial materials and faithful workmanship, well 
coppered high above water, and thoroughly protected 
from the insects which so abound in these seas, and 
which are so destructive to all wood exposed to their 
ravages." 

The details of construction and equipment are 
then entered into, and then he says: 

"Two reasons lead us to urge this matter 
earnestly, viz. : 

"i. We desire to furnish our brethren and sisters 
now in Micronesia an opportunity for a general 
meeting of consultation and social and spiritual 
intercourse. For this they long with intense desires 
such as no one can fully appreciate but those in 
like circumstances, and without a vessel under our 
control there is little hope that these natural and 
reasonable desires can be gratified. 

"2. Every indication of divine Providence urges 
to immediate preparation for enlargement. Many 
voices speak to us. The cloud is being lifted up, 
and a sound from the fiery pillar commands us to 
^ go forward.' ' Spare not,' cries the note of in- 
spiration, ' lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy 
stakes.' We must go up and possess the land, and 
under Christ we will do it. . . . 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 73 

"As to the means and agencies, they are ample, 
exhaustless, infinite. . . . Do we want the 
sympathy and co-operation of the good? God is in 
the midst of Zion, and he can make the great heart 
of the church militant and the church triumphant 
beat in holy and harmonious love with ours. As to 
funds, we have no fear on that score. Men will act 
when under the influence of a controlling motive. 
Even the Sabbath schools, the precious sons and 
daughters of our Zion, will, if properly led, purchase 
the vessel we need, and perhaps furnish funds to 
bring her to our shores. And why shall they not be 
allowed the joyous privilege? How many young 
eyes would glow, how many bright faces brighten, 
and how many youthful hearts beat with sacred 
pleasure to behold their own Day Star unfurling 
her signals and spreading her white wings to the 
winds of heaven, freighted with the priceless 
treasures of salvation!" 

How heartily successive bands of children have 
entered once, twice, thrice into this joyous privilege 
has been told in the revised " Stories of the Morning 
Star," published by the A. B. C. F. M. at Boston. 

How heartily the little brig was hailed at Hilo on 
her return from her first missionary cruise let Mr. 
Coan's pen relate: 

"The morning of the 7th of July, 1857, dawned 
gloriously on Hawaii. The mountains were throw- 
ing off their night robes, and adorning themselves 
in the light drapery of the dawn; the fields were 
slowly unveiling their peerless beauty; the ocean 
began to reflect the first tinges of morning light. 



74 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

when suddenly the sound, 'Hokuao!' [Morning Star) 
'Hokuao!' broke our slumbers. 'Hokuao! Hokuao!' 
echoed and re-echoed from every headland and hill, 
and rolled back from every valley along our coast; 
and multitudes of children waked, and ran, and 
shouted, and caught the 'flying joy.' All Hilo was 
awake. Away in the eastern horizon floated that 
beauteous star of Hope, while Venus, like an angel's 
eye, looked down upon her from the vault of heaven. 
Then we felt that our prayers had been heard, and 
realized that the sleepless eye of Him who proclaims 
himself 'the Bright and Morning Star,' was also 
looking down upon that consecrated bark. And 
while our spiritual organs seem to catch the notes of 
the celestial anthem, as 'the morning stars sang 
together,' our bodily ears did hear many voices of 
the 'sons of God' as they 'shouted for joy.'" 

Impressed in later years with the increasing 
demands to push forward the work more rapidly in 
the Micronesian Archipelagoes, he exclaims: 

"Why should the angel that flies through the 
midst of heaven with the Gospel message move with 
clipped wings? The artillery of war moves on swift 
wheels to shake the nations and pour out human 
blood, while the old sails flap, and the lazy boom 
squeaks mournfully in the doldrums, as our vessels 
are driven hither and thither by the squalls and 
storms of capes that obstruct their way to the lost 
tribes of men. If the Lord will, I hope to hear the 
whistle of a missionary steamer in our waters before 
I go hence." 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 75 

Portions of the following letter, addressed to 
Professor James D. Dana, were published many 
years ago in the Americaii Journal of Science. We 
are kindly allowed to make the present use of it. 

TO PKOF. J. D. DANA. 

October 15, 185 5- — "Ii^ a few days we may be 
called to announce the painful fact that our beauteous 
Hilo is no more — that our lovely, our inimitable 
landscape, our emerald bowers, our crescent strand 
and our silver bay are blotted out. A fiery sword 
hangs over us. A flood of burning ruin approaches 
us. Devouring fires are near us. With sure and 
solemn progress the glowing fusion advances through 
the dark forest and the dense jungle in our rear, 
cutting down ancient trees of enormous growth and 
sweeping away all vegetable life. For sixty-five 
days the great summit furnace on Mauna Loa has 
been in awful blast. Floods of burning destruction 
have swept wildly and widely over the top and down 
the sides ot the mountain. The wrathful stream has 
overcome every obstacle, winding its fiery way from 
its high source to the bases of the everlasting hills, 
spreading in a molten sea over the plains, penetra- 
ting the ancient forests, driving the bellowing herds, 
the wild goats and the affrighted birds before its 
lurid glare, leaving nothing but ebon blackness and 
smoldering ruin in its track. 

"On the 1 2th of July, I wrote you on the state of 
old Kilauea, and on the 27th of September I 
announced to our mutual friend. Prof. Lyman, the 
fact and the state of our present eruption. Having 
made my quarterly pastoral tours, I started, on the 



76 Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 

2nd inst., for the scene and the source of the flow. 
Our party consisted of Lawrence McCuUy, Esq., a 
graduate of Yale, and our police magistrate,* four 
natives and myself. Taking the channel of the 
Wailuku (the river which enters Hilo Bay) as our 
track, we advanced, with much toil through the 
thicket along its banks, about twelve miles the first 
day. Here we rested at the roots of a large tree 
during the night. The next day we proceeded 
about twelve miles farther, for the most part along 
the bed of the stream, the water being low. During 
both of these days volcanic smoke had filled the 
forest and given the rays of the sun a yellow and 
baleful hue. At night when the shades gathered 
over those deep solitudes, unbroken except by the 
bellowing of the untamed bull, the barking of the 
wild dog, the grunt of the forest boar, the wing and 
the note of the restless bird, the falling of a time- 
worn tree, the gurgling of the rill and the roar of 
the cataract, we made our little bed of ferns under 
the trunk of a prostrate tree, and here, for the first 
time, we found that the molten stream had passed 
us, by many miles, on its way towards Hilo. 

"But as its track was several miles to the left of us, 
and as the jungle here was nearly impenetrable, we 
proceeded the next day up the stream, and at half- 
past one, P. M., found ourselves fairly out of the 
forest, having been a little more than two and a half 
days in accomplishing this part of the tour. 



* Since, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the 
Hawaiian Kingdom. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 7 7 

"I cannot stop to describe the beautiful and 
romantic scenery along our winding, rocky gorge; 
the cascades, basins, caves and natural bridges of this 
wild and solitary stream. Nor can I speak of the 
velvet masses, luxuriant creepers, hanging in 
festoons, the forest trees and other tropical glories 
which were mirrored in its limpid waters. We 
needed an artist and a naturalist to fix the glowing 
panorama, and to describe its flora and fauna. 

''When we emerged from the upper skirts of the 
woods on the third day, a dense fog obstructed 
our view of distant objects. We encamped early in 
a cave, but during the night the stars came out, and 
we could see the play of the volcanic fires from the 
summit to the base of the mountain, and far down 
in the forest toward Hilo. The next morning, 
Friday, we left our cavern, and at half-past seven, 
A.M., came to the smouldering lava-stream ; from this 
time until ten, we walked on its right border, when 
we crossed over to the opposite side. This occupied 
us an hour and a quarter, and we judged the stream 
to be three miles wide at this point, which, however, 
was one of its ^narrows.' In some places it spread 
out into wide lakes, apparently from five to eight 
miles broad, enclosing, as is usually the case, little 
islands, not flooded by the fusion. Passing up the 
southern verge of the stream we found many trees 
felled by the lava, and lying crisped and half charred 
upon its stiffened and smoky surface. At night we 
slept upon the lava above the line of vegetation, 
with the heavens for our canopy and the stars for our 
lamps. From this high watch tower we could see 



78 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co aii. 

the brilliant fire- works far above and far below us, 
as the dazzling fusion rushed down its burning duct, 
revealed here and there by an opening through its 
rocky-roof, serving as a vent for the gases. 

* 'Early on Saturday, the 6th, we were ascending 
our rugged pathway amidst steam and smoke and 
heat which almost blinded and scathed us. At ten 
we came to open orifices down which we looked into 
the fiery river which rushed madly under our feet. 
Up to this we had come to no open lake or stream 
of active fusion. We had seen in the night many 
lights like street lamps, glowing along the slope of 
the mountains at considerable distances from each 
other, while the stream made its way in a subter- 
ranean channel traced only by these vents. From 
ten A. M., and onward, these fiery vents were fre- 
quent, some of them measuring ten, twenty, fifty or 
one hundred feet in diameter. In one place only we 
saw the river uncovered for thirty rods and rushing 
down a declivity of from ten to twenty-five degrees. 
The scene was awful, the momentum incredible, the 
fusion perfect (a white heat), and the velocity forty 
miles an hour. The banks on each side of the 
stream were red-hot, jagged and overhanging, 
adorned with burning stalactites and festooned with 
immense quantities of filamentose, capillary glass, 
called 'Pele's hair.' From this point to the summit 
crater all was inexpressibly interesting. Valve after 
valve opened as we went up, out of which issued 
*fire and smoke and brimstone,' and down which we 
looked as into the caverns of Pluto. The gases 
were so pungent that we had to use the greatest 



Meinoi'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 79 

caution, approaching an orifice on the windward 
side, and watching every change or gyration of the 
breeze. Sometimes whirlwinds would sweep along, 
loaded with deadly gases and threatening the unwary 
traveler. After a hot and weary struggle over 
smoking masses of jagged scoria and slag thrown in 
wild confusion into hills, cones and ridges, and 
spread out over vast fields, we came at one P. M., to 
the terminal or summit crater. This we found to 
be a low elongated con^, or rather a series of cones, 
standing over a great fissure in the mountain. 
Mounting to the crest of the highest cone, about one 
hundred feet, so toppling was it, so great the heat 
andtso excoriating the gases, we could find no posi- 
tion where we could look down the orifice. 
The molten stream first appears some two miles 
below the fountain crater, and as we viewed it rush- 
ing out from under its ebon counterpane, and in the 
twinkling of eye diving again into its fiery den, it 
seemed to say, * Stand off; scan me not! I am God's 
messenger. A work to do! Away!' 

"This summit crater I estimate at twelve thousand 
feet elevation, the principal stream (there are many 
lateral ones) including all its windings, sixty miles 
long, averaging breadth three miles, depth from 
three to three hundred feet, according to the surface 
over which it flows. 

"Late on Saturday afternoon we came a short dis- 
tance down the mountain where we encamped on the 
naked rocks until Monday.* 



*"In itself we would not have deemed it wrong to go down the 
mountain on the Sabbath, but as our natives are slow to discrim- 



8o Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

"Unwittingly we passed the last watering place ^ 
in our ascent on Friday morning, and having only 
one quart in our canteen, this was our Avhole supply 
until 9 A. M. on Monday. We were soon reduced 
to a single spoonful each, and this only at our meals. 
Our food being dry and hard, we suffered not a 
little. The dew which fell upon our garments, our 
food buckets and the rocks around us, congealed 
and became frost or thin scales of ice, and from an 
oilcloth spread for the purpose we collected a few 
spoonfuls, while our parched lips readily kissed the 
rocks to obtain a little moisture. There was snow 
on another part of the mountain far below us. The 
fires had melted all in this region. . . . At one 
P. M. a dense fog obscured our track, our guide lost 
his way, and we were obliged to encamp. 

"Early on Tuesday we were astir, wandering 
through jungle and over rough fields of scoria, 
when, fortunately, at half-past nine, we found the 
only track which could lead us out of this cruel 
labyrinth. On the nth we reached home, having 
been absent ten days. The great summit fountain 
is still playing with fearful energy, and the devour- 
ing stream rushes madly down toward us. It is 
now about ten miles distant, and heading directly 
for our bay. Some are planning, some packing, 
many running to and fro, and all talking and con- 
jecturing. Never was Hilo in such a state before; 

inate and reason on points of religion, and as multitudes in all 
parts of the islands would be sure to hear that the teacher who 
had so often dissuaded them from unnecessary labor on the Lord's 
day had himself been traveling on that day, it was prudent to give 
them no occasion to stumble on this point. I have never regretted 
the self-denial." — Life in Hawaii, page 296. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 8 1 

and yet all is hushed and solemn. Nothing but the 
hand of Omnipotence can arrest the fearful progress 
of the fire and save our beautiful town from utter 
desolation. " 

And God's hand did deliver Hilo from its danger, 
but not until the faith of those who trusted in Him 
had been tried for six long months, as they watched 
the approaching flood. The molten lava was 
within seven miles of the sea. No natural obstacles 
intervened to stop its progress. Science could give 
no reason why the "billions of cubic feet of molten 
rock" that for nine months continued to descend 
from the crater in the same direction as at the first 
did not push forward and destroy the town. Mr. 
Coan and other Christians believed it was in answer 
to prayers. 

TO REV. J. SESSIONS, D. D. 

August 25, 1857. • • • "You are charmed 
with the physical and the spiritual works of God. 
You gaze, you wonder, you adore. And these are 
my feelings, deepened and intensified by a residence 
of more than twenty-two years. Should man with- 
hold his praise for the gi'ace here displayed, these 
mountains and these rocks would cry out. If we 
admire and adore with enthusiasm it is not without 
cause. Your estimate of the character of this people 
is, I think, correct. Like other parts of Christen- 
dom, we have first a class of humble, spiritual 
and steadfast disciples; these are numerous, and 
they are ' our joy and our crown.' Second, an 
impulsive class, now blazing like a comet, and anon 
lost like a comet in the distance — seesaw Christians. 



82 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

A third class are never cold or hot — mere negatives, 
lead. Another class are disturbing forces, calling 
for constant watching; under discipline most of the 
time — sinning, confessing, promising, relapsing. A 
fifth class run with us a short way, and apostatize — 
wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness 
of darkness forever. Another class have made no 
essay on the subject of Christianity from the begin- 
ning. They are entrenched in the blindness and 
hardness of heathenism. . . . You need not 
ask if I love the natives. To me they seem like 
brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, /V^V/^^i-. Twenty 
times, perhaps, since we have sojourned here I have 
dreamed of being in America, looking and longing 
for a vessel to take me back to my dear islet and 
my loved flock, and on wakening from such anxious 
dreams my soul was filled with joy and thankful 
praise to find myself here in my Eden and with my 
people. We feel humbled in reading your commend- 
ations of our toils and successes. God knows our 
manifold sins and our utter demerits. Alas! our 
leanness. I tremble in view of unfaithfulness, and 
I do think I abhor my own righteousness. Mercy, 
grace — for these I plead. All my labors and prayers 
seem so defiled with sin that they stare on me 
appallingly. I dare not mention them before God. 
I dare not meet them at his tribunal. I want a 
better righteousness. " 

TO REV. H. BINGHAM, JR. 

November 3, 1857. — **Wenow await the return of 
the Morni7ig Star with deep interest. By her we 



Memo7'ial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 83 

expect to hear good tidings from you and your dear 
companion, and from the precious cause in which 
you have embarked. Long ago we trust you have 
met your fellow-laborers in the Micronesian field. 
I can imagine the bounding joy with which your 
arrival was hailed in those lonely isles. How my 
soul would have rejoiced to have been one of your 
number, and to have mingled its sympathies in the 
scenes through which you have passed. Do we not 
in the service of our Lord often ' drink of the brook 
in the way,' and ' with joy draw water from the 
wells of salvation'? Is there not sometimes an un- 
uttered pleasure, a holy triumph of soul, in denying 
ourselves, in taking the cross and in following our 
Redeemer in his works of mercy on earth? Do we 
not find purer and more purifying pleasure in 
forsaking all for Christ than in grasping all for our- 
selves? Beloved Brother and Sister, only see that 
your consecration to your work is entire and irre- 
versible, and you will realize in your own souls the 
fulfillment of the promise of an hundred fold more in 
this present time. " 

TO REV. J. SESSIONS, D. D. 

March 22), 1858. . . . ''Writing is a simple 
mode of communicating and receiving happiness, a 
quiet and efficient way of doing good. It is a 'talent,' 
for whose use or neglect we are responsible. Its 
neglect often produces coldness, and even alienation 
among kindred and friends. The genial and 
precious sympathies of our hearts wither and die 
under its neglect. . . . Some fifteen ships are 



84 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

at anchor before our door. One captain (with his 
wife and three children) is in our family. Sailors are 
on every hand and much of our time is devoted to 
them. Our meetings are full and attentive; some 
are tender and tearful, some solemn. But how can 
a Sabbath whaler be saved? That almost universal 
sin of whalemen darkens their prospects of heaven, 
and, until they will abandon it, shuts the door of 
salvation against them. . . . Your definition 
of a miracle with the argument following, I consider 
sound. I never dipped pen to reply to the strictures 
on my volcanic essay in The Friend for May, 1857. 
Several criticisms were made on it, but the objections 
of the writers were of little force against the Word 
of God. The press gives you the great reports, so 
you will allow me to confine myself to little matters. 
Hilo is a small place, but through the mercy of God 
it is one of the most quiet and peaceful towns in the 
world. Masters and sailors fill the streets without 
reeling, riot or noise; we go out and come in with a 
perfect sense of security. Not that there is not 
much sin here, but grace reigns — righteousness is in 
the ascendant. " 

TO REV. H. HALSEY. 

February, 1859. — "You ask if I will be at the 
meeting of the American Board in i860. Probably 
not. Many thanks for your kind ofi"er to be my 
supply. Bring a strong rope to cross the rivers, and 
firm shoes to climb the mountains. . . Whether 
we shall ever again see our children on earth is 
uncertain. Sure confidence in the wisdom and love 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 85 

of God, and the hopes of a better state hereafter 
alone reconcile us to such parting struggles and to 
the other trials of life. . . . Just now we are 
having a grand pyrotechnic display. On the 22d ult. 
the summit of Mauna Loa was rent with volcanic 
fires, and a deluge of igneous fusion rushed forth and 
poured down the mountain. Su©h was the energy 
of the flood that in an hour or two it had reached 
some twenty miles, filling the heavens with light 
and rolling in vivid and burning waves over the 
plains below. At first we thought the stream was 
coming towards Hilo, but at length it turned and 
rolled over towards the western coast, and entered 
the sea on the eighth day after the eruption. The 
distance may be fifty miles. It is still flowing with 
great power. These successive eruptions show that 
our island habitation is not finished. Mauna Loa is 
rising; its sides and base are enlarging by successive 
strata of lava; high hills, pits and fissures are being 
formed in the interior; streams of water are oblit- 
erated, forests are consumed, villages are over- 
whelmed, arable lands are covered with a mural 
deposit scores or hundreds of feet deep, and coasts 
and capes are extended into the sea. So God works, 
and so man stands aside, as his fiery chariot rolls by, 
gazing, trembling, murmuring or adoring. What- 
ever the scoffer may say, we feel sure that there is a 
God, and that he has not forsaken the earth. " 

TO REV. H. BINOHAM. 

March 14., i860. . . . "You are still pained 
at the indiff*erence of your people to the Gos{)el 



86 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

messages. So it will be for a time. They know 
not the import and cannot appreciate the treasures 
of the Gospel. But you will reap in due season if 
you faint not. Passion and animal instincts sway 
the heathen; and the missionary is to meet and 
measure a hundred ebbings and fluxes of animal 
passion before enlightened piety and settled princi- 
ples gain a full ascendency, before the great deep of 
human depravity ceases to rise and fall and surge 
like the ocean under temperature and tempest, and 
all becomes so placid and reliable that you can say, 
'There is no more sea.' Christ has determined to 
convert all nations, and he will not fail or be dis- 
couraged in the work. The isles and peoples shall 
wait for his law and welcome it; and he is with his 
believing laborers always, not occasionally, not in 
peace and sunshine only, but in war and tempest. " 

TO KEV. J. SESSIONS, D. D. 

Jtily 6, i860. . . . "As you took me up the 
road of the ransomed to view the heavenly hills and 
to see the 'fields in living green,' tears flowed fast, for 
I said, 'O! that 1 had wings like a dove.' O! for 
the land of pure delight, where the grave has no 
power, and death no sting; where darkness and sin, 
where guilt and fear are unfelt; where the bitter 
fruits of transgression are untasted, and where the 
rapt soul awakes, satisfied in the likeness of its 
Savior. I have never, like you, been brought to 
look death in the face, as a messenger already at 
the door. And a sense of sin is usually so distinct 
to my mind that I could hardly hope to feel that 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Co an. 



calm joy which you felt in prospect of near departure. 
I need more faith. But you were brought back to 
the world, and the Lord is preparing more for you 
to do, and you to do it. We do well to watch his 
providences, for they are wise as wonderful. 
Much of what men call progress and improvement 
in civilization is improvement in artful blandishments, 
in enervating follies, in fictitious sentiments, in 
duplicity and hypocrisy, and not in purity of heart, in 
truth and righteousness, in simple, unostentatious 
manners, in good sense and sound piety. A scath- 
ing and killing civilization is coming to these Islands, 
and simple faith and honest truth are threatened to 
be borne down by it. A false glitter dazzles many, 
and the stream of pleasure is covered with a gay and 
giddy throng. Give me rather the calabash, the 
poi-pestle, the quiet hut, with the old Bible, the 
simple hymns and the confiding prayer of the old 
Hawaiian convert. I do not mean to say that there 
is not on the whole much real and desirable progress 
here, nor that we do not see and appreciate it; but 
we do see with this progress a flood of that which is 
spurious and dangerous, and it requires great dis- 
cernment, great faith and great boldness to refuse 
the evil and choose the good. Principle, profession, 
early teachings and resolutions often bend and sway, 
stagger and fall under the temptations of lucre or 
fame, or the fear of man. . . . Government 
patronage goes to overthrow government and to dig 
the grave of the nation, and nothing but omnipotent 
grace will save the state from ruin. ... I was 
greatly interested in my visit to the Marquesas, one 



88 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaji. 

of the darkest realms of earth. The natural scenery 
is bold, rugged and sublime. Geologically the 
group is purely of igneous origin. In the floral 
kingdom there is much to interest the naturalist. 
I was delighted with many of the trees; they are 
magnificent. The fauna of the islands is hardly yet 
created. But there is one object of deep interest 
there, and that is 7nan — man in ruins, in the lowest 
depths of depravity, and without a lineament of the 
Creator in his soul. Savageism in the Marquesas 
is dark and diabolical. Paul's enumeration of the 
characteristics of heathen is fully illustrated there. 
They are impure beyond description. They are 
selfish, deceitful, cruel, revengeful and implacable. 
They never forgive. Blood for blood is their creed, 
and until a sacrifice is obtained, they watch for the 
infliction of vengeance on a foe during life, and in 
death commit the trust to their children as a per- 
petual legacy, until the thirst is satiated in the blood 
of the offender, of his descendant or of his tribe. 
But through the grace of God which brings salvation, 
light has dawned on those dark realms. After 
sixty-three years of unsuccessful effort on the part of 
more than twenty English, French, American and 
Tahitian missionaries, God has chosen a little band 
of unknown and despised Hawaiians to proclaim 
salvation to those abandoned tribes, and he has 
crowned their labors with marvelous success. The 
power of tabu, of superstition, of war and canni- 
balism, of human sacrifices, and of all the polluting 
orgies and horrid rites of heathenism is greatly 
weakened in that land. And through God, the 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Coan. 89 

whole system will ere long fall. I was delighted 
with the skill and interest displayed by some of the 
scholars at examinations. These islands must be 
given to Christ. He has died iox them. Will you 
not pray, and enlist a thousand hearts to pray that 
the poor, lost Marquesans may come to the Savior 
and live? Hilo church prays for them, and last year 
we gave five hundred dollars to sustain that mission, 
I am comforted at the easy way in which 
you get along with my thorny writing. The bee 
gets honey from the thistle, and you draw something 
from my crotchety scrawls. I think you learn 
patience, and surely that is a valuable lesson. Per- 
haps, also, you learn some new angles which you 
never found in geometry." 

TO HIS BROTHER. 

September 21, 1861. — "How we rejoice to get 
these precious tokens of love and these testimonials 
of the mercy of our God. The natives of Micronesia 
devoured the letters and papers of our missionaries. 
They soaked them in water, and then literally ate 
and drank them. We devour ours spiritically. We 
rejoice that you all live. Had you gone to heaven 
last year would you have heard the thunder notes of 
war, or wept for a darling boy laid on the altar of 
his country? Who can tell? It is, however, proba- 
ble that celestial beings survey this wicked world of 
ours and sympathize in all the sorrows of the just. 
One thing is certain. Our great High Priest sym- 
pathizes with his people, and in all their afflictions 
he is afflicted. I hate war. It is not from above, 



90 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

but is earthly, devilish. On the part of the Federal 
Government, I consider this the most just war I ever 
knew. On the part of the rebels it is diabolical. 
But I look upon this as upon all war, as the ripened 
fruit of sin. I have long expected and feared it. 
For long years the nation has been treasuring up 
wrath against this day of wrath. Should peace ever 
return to our distracted nation, I hope this solemn 
lesson will teach all ministers and professors of the 
Gospel to pray and labor and give for the establish- 
ment of those principles of truth, forbearance and 
love which will render war in our country impossible. 
Had the Church done her duty in living and testify- 
ing for Christ, this awful conflict would never have 
come as a bloody Moloch to devour her sons and 
consume her treasury. A tithe of this war expense, 
wisely and prayerfully expended during the last fifty 
years would have driven the war demon from all 
Christendom. So I believe. I honor and pity our 
good president, Lincoln. What mortal ever entered 
upon office under such crushing responsibilities, and 
so surrounded by complications, darkness and 
danger? Heaven help him. " 

TO FLAG OFFICER S. F. DC PONT, U. S. N. 

September 20, 1862. — "With your pressing and 
overwhelming cares it may seem intrusive for me to 
write you. But I cannot forbear to assure you of the 
deep and full-souled sympathy your old Hilo friends 
feel in the great cause in which you are engaged. 
Though we should prize a line from you more than 
gold, yet we will not ask or expect such a favor just 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Co an. 91 

now. Your head and hands and heart are too full 
of a nations weal to turn aside to private friends. 

"The reading of your wife's last letter to us so 
stirred up our social, patriotic and Christian hearts 
that we cannot forbear sending a small memento of 
love and gratitude and veneration to our honored 
DuPont. ... And now, my dear Admiral, 
allow me to say, that I look upon this fraternal 
strife with awe and with anguish. How great must 
be our national wickedness which calls down such 
bolts of wrath and which scatters such a tempest of 
sulphur and fire and blood over the land. Did ever 
cloud darken and thicken and thunder with more 
fearful portent over a people? Did ever the baleful 
fires of civil strife burn more fiercely? Was ever a 
conquest more sanguinary or more desperate? The 
proportion, the magnitude of this rebellion are, per- 
haps, unparalleled in man's history. Will not the 
result be correspondent in magnitude? You know 
my views on war in the abstract: I preach and pray 
and labor against it, as against all other sins: theft, 
robbery, murder, etc. Its origin is in the lusts and 
wickedness of the human heart, and as I desire the 
removal of idolatry so I pray that this gigantic 
evil may cease. I do, nevertheless, accept war as 
a fact, and we must meet it when it comes, in the 
wisest and best manner possible to our present state 
and to the state of our fallen world. Powers, govern- 
ments, laws are of God — ordained and sustained by 
him. He has put the sword into the hand of rulers, 
and they are bound to use it in protecting the right 
and in terror to evil-doers. I look upon the present. 



-92 Memorial of Ret'. Titus Coan. 

rebellion as a premeditated, a haughty, wanton, 
diabolical treason against law and constitutional 
right. Our Southern brethren do not see it in this 
light, and I would feel a sad pity for them and pray 
that their eyes may be opened; as a man and a 
Christian I would feel for them and treat them with 
all proper kindness, but as a lo\-al and law-loving 
citizen I must sustain my government with my 
prayers and sympathies, my treasure and my life if 
need be. . . . We have read, dear sir, with 
great interest of your toils and cares, your sacrifices 
and your heroic deeds in this day of darkness and of 
peril. And we bless God who has given you wis- 
dom and strength and an upright heart in this war. 
In your unwearied efforts in the Philadelphia navy- 
yard, in Annapolis, in Washington, in your admira- 
ble conduct of the s^reat Southern fleet, vour tactics 
and success at Hilton Head and other places, we 
rejoiced deeply. And we do follow you in our 
prayers constantly. It is a matter of great joy to us 
that so many of our best naval and military com- 
manders are men who fear God and who look to him 
for help. Viy heart is full and I know not how to 
stop." 

TO REV. H. BINGHAM. 

April"/, 1863. — "I take the earliest opportunity 
to express our full sympathy with you and your 
-excellent wife in the departure of her venerable 
father, Brewster. How impressive and prophetical 
his last words to you. 'Gladly we would hail the 
dawn of a brighter day. ' That day has dawned upon 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 95. 

him. Beams of ineffable light flood his vision. He 
has gone beyond the sound of the war-trumpet and 
the sanguinary scenes of human strife. The baleful 
clouds of woe which encircle the American horizon 
and roll and flash and thunder over the land are all 
far, far below him, and the last cry of anguish has. 
died on his ear. How well I remember once stand- 
ing on the heaven-powdered mountains of Hawaii 
with all the celestial orbs shining above me, while a 
dark sea of clouds was being rent and shaken by 
lightning and thunder and hail-storm below. Thus, 
thought I, is it with the saint who is sheltered in 
heaven. 

" 'AH is tranquil and serene, 
Calm and undisturbed repose.' 

"Your Fourth of July friend* is still here, though 
out of office. He has become a devout papist, and. 
I am told that he declares he would be willing to sell 
his life if he might be employed to go to America,., 
and burn all the Northern cities. This, he says,, 
would bring the Yankees under, and put an end to- 
the war by cutting its sinews. What darkness and 
madness reign in the human heart. Baptism, con- 
firmation, masses, confessionals, pictures of the Holy 
Virgin and all the saints, with all other outward 
forms of piety, do not cure depravity. . . . We 



*Mr. and Mrs. B. were guests at a picnic gathering in 1857, at 
which the American residents of Hilo sought to give expression 
to their patriotism on this anniversary. Mr. B. was one of the 
speakers, and alluded to the stain which slavery had left upon his 
country's flag. For this, a Southerner present afterwards laid 
his clinched fist upon Mr, Bingham's shoulder, and pouring out a 
torrent of violent and offensive language, threatened to flog him 
within an inch of his life should he ever venture into his office. 



94 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

have felt a constant desire that your lives, health 
and happiness might be preserved to labor in the 
vineyard of our Lord. But we apprehend that you 
suffer from climate and from monotony of life. To 
keep the heart happy, the mind buoyant and the 
spirits elastic, physical health must be secured; and 
a wise care of our earthly tabernacles is important to 
a vigorous, cheerful and successful prosecution of 
our spiritual labors. " 

TO MISS E. BINGHAM. 

August 2, 1864. . . . ''Trials are the saints' 
crucibles. They are melters, consumers of gross 
matter, and purifiers. What more precious than 
refined gold? One thing — tried faith. But the 
potter sometimes sets aside a vessel and leaves it on 
the shelf in an obscure and apparently useless place. 
Let the vessel be quiet; murmuring does not become 
it. Let it be silent; it may yet be honored. So let 
the afflicted saint be calm, peaceful, unquestioning, 
and let him sing, 

" ' Sweet in the confidence of love 
To trust his firm decrees.' 

"How I long to see your dear, venerable sire. I 
have loved him from the day he took us to his home 
and his heart, and I feel a tender desire for his wel- 
fare in old age. Your peerless mother is safe. She 
is beyond the reach of solicitude and sorrow. How 
fragrant, how precious her memory. My heart 
melts as I think of her offices of personal kindness, 
and especially of her full consecration to the cause 
of her Savior. My soul often sees her a way-worn 



Memoj'ial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 95 

pilgrim, weary in toil, bent with care, and yet strong 
in faith, cheerful .in hope, constant in love, with the 
words of kindness on her lips, and the smile of 
heaven on her cheek. 

" 'Happy soul, th y da^^'s are ended, 
All thy toiling days below.' 

''Let US be meek and faithful, doing and enduring 
all God's will concerning us, and in a little we also 
shall be beyond the confines of sin and fear and pain. " 

TO JOEL AND HANNAH BEAN {widely kuoivn and es- 
teemed members of the Society of Friends). 

August 22, 1865. — "My very pen seems to rejoice 
in dropping thoughts of love to Christian friends so 
congenial and so dear to us as our precious brother 
and sister, Joel and Hannah. Your united letters 
came loaded with fragrant odors from the hills of 
Zion. There is not in them a sentiment or a word 
which does not meet a cordial welcome and a warm 
response. And so deep is our respect, so tender 
and true our love for you, and for all the consistent 
members of your Society, that you might ever ex- 
press any sentiment in which we may accidentally 
and honestly differ without the least fear that our 
Christian fellowship would be interrupted. 'How 
good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
together,' not in uniformity , but 'in unity.' 

"Your reference to your visit to our tropical shores 
kindles our love and awakens our kindest reminis- 
cences; and the elevation of your spiritual telescope 
to the heavenly hills where faith and hope shall in- 
herit a fruition of love and joy stimulates us to 



g6 . Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

plume our wings for upward flight. . . . The 
news of peace rolled a wave of joy over our islets. 
Our hearts swelled in gratitude, and our lips burst 
in thanksgiving to God. The old Pacific seemed 
more peaceful, and her broad bosom swelled with 
joy, and her radiant face was kissed by the soft 
breezes and lighted by the smiles of heaven. ' The 
trees of the woods sang out, the floods clapped their 
hands and the hills were joyful ' at the glad news. 
But suddenly all was changed. The sea, the sky 
and the fields darkened — a sigh of sorrow, a wave of 
woe swept over us. Our sunny islands were draped 
in mourning. Abraham Lincoln isdeadf 'A prince 
and a great man is fallen! ' Treason has murdered 
Mercy. Thus we wept. But still we looked up to 
the High Throne of Heaven and saw our Father 
there. 

"We rejoice that God has put it into the hearts 
of the Friends to do so much and to act so wisely 
and promptly in the good work of renovating our 
land. Oh, how many wounds need the kind hand 
of the Binder, how many bleeding hearts the balm 
of Gilead and her Great Physician. When, in all 
time, was the church called to a greater, a tenderer 
or a more earnest work? What eye can survey it? 
What mind can measure it! God only gauges and 
comprehends the darkness, the sins and the woes to 
be removed through the agency of Christian love." 

TO HIS SISTER. 

March J, 1866. — "How I would like to see you 
and the good deacon, and talk a week or two on the 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 97 

experiences of life. And how I long to see the old 
home, the meadow, the orchard, the pond, the mill, 
and the thousand little things that gave life and joy 
to childhood. I wonder if the Lord will suffer me 
to look down from heaven and see that dear old 
rural landscape again. I do not expect to see it 
with mortal eyes. I see in the New York Evangel- 
ist that there has been a reviving in Killingworth — 
a refreshing from the presence of the Lord. These 
are joyful tidings, and I trust that you and Brother 
A. have tasted of the heavenly gift. You are both 
drawing near the time of your departure, and I 
hope you are ripe for the garner of the Lord. I 
only reason that you are old by counting years, and 
by looking at my own head in the glass. I seem to 
myself only as a young and foolish boy who has 
everything to learn, and yet my days on earth are 
being numbered. Less than five 3^ears more will 
bring me to the line beyond which few pass. How 
little I have done for God — how much which should 
not have been done. 

"Fidelia and Titus are now the 'old folks at 
home.' All the young birds have flown and left the 
parent birds. But the light-winged messengers — 
letters — often come back to the nest and give us 
great pleasure. We are not lonely. Our house is 
surrounded, and filled most of the time, with native 
and foreign neighbors and visitors. Multitudes of 
strangers visit Hilo from nearly all the nations of 
earth. We aire just in the center of the world as to 
seeing different nationalities. Our work is constant 
and the Lord is gracious. Some are being gathered 



98 Memoj'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

into the church from month to month. We are or- 
ganizing churches, ordaining pastors, and building 
and dedicating meeting houses. Our people con- 
tribute well of their poverty. Please give my sin- 
cere love to all old friends. I can not begin to give 
names lest I never get through. " 

TO PROF. J. D. DANA. 

August '}i\, 1866. . . . "This is an age when 
enlightened skepticism makes gigantic strides, and 
with the weapons of false philosophy and perverted 
science strikes hard blows at simple faith and evan- 
gelical truth. It is, therefore, a great blessing to 
Zion that Christian savans are stationed over all the 
earth, able and willing to defend moral truth. The 
Lord spare your precious life. I beg that you will 
not press too hard in your labors, but be contented 
and thankful if you may labor but two hours per 
day. . . . Mr. Brigham has just written me 
from Boston, giving a running sketch of his tour 
around our planet. He mentioned that he was about 
to visit New Haven to see you. I trust that you have 
met him, and hope that he has given you some spec- 
imens of our Hawaiian rocks. How our hearts 
would leap for joy could you come again to our 
shores, and spend a few months in our family, and 
roam over our hills and through our forests, and 
bathe in our laughing streams. Who can tell that 
you will not see Hawaii again and renew your ac- 
quaintance with Mother Pele and her numerous 
daughters? When the Pacific railroad shall have 
been completed, it will be but a step from the Elm 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 99 

City to the Emerald Bower of Hilo. That step will 
be over the eastern Pacific. Would not such a vaca- 
tion and visit rejuvenate you? There has been a 
vast filling up and an upraising in Kilauea since 
1840. Should you now visit it you would recognize 
nothing except the outer walls and the surrounding 
regions. Internally all is changed and all is new. 
In May, June and July the action in the crater was 
often vehement. The old South lake overflowed 
several times, and a chain of Jakes, three, four and 
sometimes five or six, opened on a curved line from 
northwest to north and northeast from the old lake. 
The action in these was often intense. Jets of 
fusion were thrown fifty to two hundred feet high; 
the lakes overflowed, and fiery rivers seethed along 
the northern and eastern walls of the crater, the 
stream in some places half a mile wide. Cones and 
domes of lava were also raised, and yawning fissures 
opened, interrupting the traveler in crossing the 
bottom of the crater. At different times, and some- 
times for many days, the fiery flood swept up to the 
' path by which visitors go into the crater and cut off 
all ingress by the usual route, and many parties were 
obliged to view the surging waves from above. Oc- 
casional earthquakes shook down avalanches of 
rocks from the walls of the crater and frightened the 
spectators. For a few weeks past the action in Ki- 
lauea has been feebler, but we have no assurance that 
it will not increase at any time. " 

TO KEY. J. SESSIONS, D. D. 

September 20, 1866. — " Your welcome letter of 
Aug. 6 comes to us like a dove over the waters, as- 



loo Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 

suring us that 'love cannot die.' Like imponderable 
substances, it may be locked up in retaining bodies 
until a material communication is established, and 
then this spiritual element rushes more rapidly than 
booming worlds or morning light. Sub-marine and 
sub-aerial telegraphs do more than to flash electric- 
ity around the globe — they carry mind and heart as 
well, and I believe that our all-gracious and glorious 
Lord will yet establish a perfect web-work of spirit- 
ual telegraphs over all the vast realms of the uni- 
verse. I doubt not that every aged saint does, like 
you, look back with amazement, 'with wonder, love 
and praise' upon all the way in which the Lord has 
led him, and when his pilgrim feet reach the Eternal 
Hills, how will his rapt soul look down from those 
realms of peace and survey the devious paths, the 
dark valleys and the hidden dangers through which 
an Unseen Hand has guided him, and with adoring 
love ascribe thanksgiving and honor to his faithful 
Guide. If you and I are God's children we shall 
soon know and feel what it is to be there." 

TO MRS. E. COAN. 

March 8, 1867. — "I have just reached home in the 
dear old Emerald Bower. I went about fifty miles 
north to meet Bro. Bond, of Kohala, and the native 
pastors and delegates of N. Hawaii at the meeting 
of an ecclesiastical association. Thence I Avent to 
Waimea, seventy miles from Hilo, to see our dear 
Brother Lyons, who has not been able to leave his 
station for more than three years on account of ill 
health. I went to help and comfort him and his 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. loi 

companion. But God's thoughts are not our 
thoughts. I was prostrated with fever the day after 
my arrival, and for two weeks confined to the house. 
So the invahd Lyons turned nurse and physician, 
and, by God's blessing on his tender and patient 
care, I recovered and was welcomed home again by 
my anxious wife. On my return I found letters 
awaiting me. I do thank you for your patience and 
care in writing me fully. You gave me the first 
intelligence of the sudden death of our dear sister. 
And she, too, has gone! How the autumnal leaves 
fall! How sere the forests! How the winds sigh! 
Only Heman and myself remain out of eight chil- 
dren. Parents, uncles and aunts all gone. But I 
have no breath of murmur, no heart to complain. 
God has been good to our family, and I trust he has 
gathered most of them into a 'better country' be- 
yond the confines of sin and sorrow. Let us gird 
up the loins of our minds, and our steps will be 
strong, our hopes bright and our hearts peaceful 
just in proportion to the purity and strength of our 
faith. ' This also is the victory which overcomes the 
world, even our faith.' I have no trust in modern 
prophets, visionary speculators and spiritual enthu- 
siasts. But I have all confidence in that good old 
book, the Bible. 'It is a light to my feet and a 
lamp to my path.' It is my joy by day and my 
song in the night — more precious than gold and 
sweeter than honey. The dear ring of the voice of 
the prophets, the evangelists, and especially of 'The 
Christ,' sounds into my heart, and I have no doubts 
as to the truth, the inspiration, the adaptation and 



I02 Meino7'ial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

the unexplored Avealth of the Bible. We all fail to 
understand much of the mysteries of the Scriptures 
and of godliness, just as a little child cannot under- 
stand the higher mathematics or soar into the realms 
of abstract science. But the child can be led onward 
and upward, and so can Ave when aax are docile like 
little children. As to the modified style of preach- 
ing, I Avould say, judge by its fruits. If it multiplies 
true converts, if it reforms sinners and causes saints 
to grow in humilit}', in purity, in love and in all good 
"works, then bless God and accept the preaching- 
There is much of Avhat is called ' liberal preaching, 
but the term does not define itself, and we must hear 
for ourselves and judge by the fruits. A vast 
change has taken place in public sentiment in the 
United States. Pride, scorn of right, the love of irre- 
sponsible power, rioting and the lust of Avealth are 
still rampant in the land. But against all these Ava\-es 
of wickedness, God is raising a mural barrier against 
Avhich the surges dash in A'ain. Poor President 
Johnson admires his OAvn polic\-. He and his party 
have more s}mipath}' with rebels and traitors, than 
Avith the faithful and true avIio liaAX sacrificed blood 
and treasure to saA"e the countrA' from the jaAvs of 
the destroA-er. He must run his race and have his 
da}', and the countrA' ma}' }'et suffer much. But 
God is merciful, and I liaA-e strong hopes that right 
Avill prcA'ail, and that after a season of patient toil and 
conflict on the part of those avIio Ioa'c righteousness, 
the nation Avill become quiet, and prosperit}" return." 



Memo7'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 103 



VIII. 

VOYAGE TO THE MARQUESAS. 

Reminiscences of the two visits made by Mr. 
Coan to the Marquesans, as delegate of the Hawaiian 
Board, are given in his Life in Hawaii. Extracts 
from the journal of his second voyage to that mission 
present vivid pictures of the scenes as witnessed. 

Morning Star, ApiHl 3, 1867. — '*We left Hilo 

this day on a missionary voyage to the Marquesas. 

On board, Rev. H. Bingham, Jr., master, and wife. 

Rev. B. W. Parker and T. Coan, delegates 

of Hawaiian Board. . . . Twenty-six all told." 

Aprils 21. — " 'Land ho!' rang from our decks at 
dawn this morning. Light winds, calms and a three- 
knot current have set us far west of our course, and 
we are among the Paumotu group, named by Bou- 
gainville, Dangerous Archipelago. Two beautiful 
islands are within two miles of us, called King 
George's Isles. . . . The sight of these on this 
bright Sabbath morning was truly charming. The 
shores are one continuous belt of white coral sand, 
kissed by the blue rippling wavelets. Within this 
encircling zone is a garland of evergreens, composed 
of the cocoanut, pandanus, kou, and various shrubs 



I04 Memorial of Rev, Titus Co a7i. 

and grasses, so intertwined as to form a beautiful 
coronal of tropical green on the brow of Neptune. 
Enclosed by this fadeless wreath is the quiet lagoon, 
bathed in silver sunbeams and rippling upon its 
shores. After an enchanting view of this gem of 
the Pacific, the Star went about and stood off from 
the land. We looked with a sigh for the dark 
dwellers on these bright islets. " 

HakahekaiL, April 29. . . . "This valley is 
rich with luxuriant vegetation. The ridges and hills 
which enclose it are grand and magnificent. Near 
the head of the valley, and on its right bank, from 
two to three miles inland, is some of the sublimest 
scenery in nature. . . . It was mournful, as we 
strolled up this beautiful and rich vale, to mark the 
silence and desolation that reigned there.* After 
leaving the little cluster of huts near the shore, not 
a living soul was seen, not a voice of man heard 
throughout all the central and upper portions of the 
valley. The trees were burdened with breadfruit, 
cocoanut, guava, papaia, etc., but there were not 
hands enough 'to pluck the wanton growth.' Un- 
tenanted houses were in a state of rapid decay, and 
solitude and silence reigned in the old Jieiaus and 
dancing grounds." 

April 30. . . . " At 4 P. M., we were at the 
entrance of Taiohae, the principal harbor of Nuuhiva. 
A French pilot brought us to anchor at 5 P- M. Two 
English gentlemen came on board and spent the 



* In 1863 about seven-tenths of the population died of small- 
pox. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 105 

evening. A French bark, the Tampico, had come 
in the day before. The captain set his flag and fired 
us a salute of one gun. The letter comphment we 
were unable to return, as we have not seen fire-arms 
or smelt powder on board the Morning Star. This 
safe harbor is surrounded on all sides, except the 
narrow entrance at the south, with a grand panorama 
of hills, diversified with lateral ridges, spurs, cones, 
dells, glens, valleys and mounds, all clothed in living 
green. The highest peaks rise three thousand eight 
hundred and sixty feet. Even on the perpendicular 
walls of precipices, shrubs and patches of verdure, 
like green velvet, are seen to cling. The tenacious 
and plume-like ironwood covers and fringes the 
lofty cones and pointed rocks; and down from the 
dizzy heights dash the merry cascades, in lines of 
molten silver from their rock-ribbed fountains three 
thousand feet above the sea. Along these lofty 
pinnacles the cloudy pavilion of Jehovah moves upon 
the winged wind, or hangs in soft drapery when the 
aerial chariot stands still. , . . The valleys 
were once full of inhabitants and echoing with wild 
and savage revelry. They are now nearly depopu- 
lated and a sleepy silence broods over them. The 
French authorities have recently sold them to a 
company of English, French and others, who, it is 
said, are about to commence plantations of cotton 
and coffee, articles which grow luxuriantly there. 
Taiohae has a small population, a few foreigners with 
a reduced number of aborigines. The French forts 
and arsenals are abandoned; two ge7ts d' amies alone 
are quartered in the barracks, and these act as a 



io6 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

town police. The jetty, the fort, the magazine, the 
mihtary road, sweeping in a graceful curvature 
around the head of the bay, and shaded by two rows 
of large hibiscus trees, the bridges, and in fact all 
the former works and improvements of the French 
are fast going to decay. Ornamental and fruit trees, 
both indigenous and and exotic, flourish in luxuri- 
ance. I measured a banyan and found its circum- 
ference to be eighty-five feet, while its umbrageous 
boughs covered a circle of some six hundred feet. " 

Hakatu, May 3. — "There is no harbor here, 
though vessels may anchor in good weather. The 
landing is marked by a remarkable laminated lava 
cone some three hundred feet high and about two 
hundred feet in diameter, rising like a great pyramid 
from the deep blue waves, and standing like a marble 
monument to commemorate the Plutonic fires of past 
ages. .... Laioha (the Hawaiian missionary) 
has a school of thirty-two pupils; they were 
examined in reading, writing and in lessons com- 
mitted to memory. After examination we held a 
meeting with the people, when many addresses were 
made and Captain and Mrs. Bingham sang 'Happy 
Land,' in the Gilbert Island language. This pleased 
the natives greatly. " 

HanarnemL, Hivaoa, May 6. — "We left Hakatu on 
the 3d, and although the distance is only fifty miles, 
yet head winds, light winds, calms and currents have 
held us back, so that we only reached Hanamenu 
to-day. The island of Hivaoa is thirty miles long, 
and in shape it is like the letter S. Its population 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 107 

is supposed to be five thousand, or more than that 
of all the other islands of the group. It has some 
fifteen to twenty valleys of great richness and beauty, 
and its arable lands might be made to yield half a 
million in cotton, coffee and other productions for 
commerce. 

*'0n landing with six Marquesans (returned from 
Oahu), the whole valley was alive and the beach 
thronged with people. Fathers, mothers, grand- 
parents, brothers, sisters, all the kith and kin of the 
exiles came down to the shore, and the weeping, 
wailing, rubbing of noses, kissing and embracing 
were affecting. Soon the breadfruit began to fall, 
the pigs to squeal, and the ovens to smoke. A feast 
was prepared with surprising rapidity, and it seemed 
joyful as at the return of the lost and dead prodigal. 
Here the ship Twilight was wrecked, and 
here is the place where lived the famous Mills, who 
went to England and the United States in 1855 to 
obtain a missionary. We saw one of his forsaken 
children, a poor, blind heathen!" 

May 7. — "This morning we organized a Christian 
church at Hanamenu, consisting of ten members. 
After this the Lord's Supper was administered for the 
first time in this place. At ii A. M. we bade our 
six fellow-passengers from Hawaii, our ten Chris- 
tian brethren and sisters in Christ and the mixed 
multitude which gathered around, an affectionate 
and sincere farewell, and returned to the packet. 
How faithfully this dear vessel waits on our minis- 
trations and administers to our wants. From Nuu- 



io8 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

hiva to this place we have heard rumors of a savage 
war at Puamau, and of a plot at Omoa to destroy 
and rob our vessel, on account of the death of 
nearly all who left Fatuiva for Honolulu, in 1865. 
Our trust is in God." 

Puamau y May 8. — "Early this morning we were 
near this large and romantic valley. We all felt 
solicitude. . . . Kekela told us that the war had 
just closed. This was glad news, and it seemed as 
Providential as joyful. The door was open for us 
among the heathen, and we were invited to enter. 
Landing near the French Mission, we called on the 
priest who now occupies the station. He was very 
urbane and social, and he received us with much 
■cordiality. In answer to the question how he 
enjoyed life among these savages, he replied, "It is 
not very agreeable. " We walked one-fourth of a 
mile on the beach, amidst a crowd of rude and gar- 
rulous people. Many of them had just come out of 
war, and there Avas a savage wildness, an imperti- 
nent impudence, and a ferocious license about them 
which we had seen nowhere else. How surely war 
develops the direst and most diabolical passions of 
human nature. . . . On the ist of May, just 
one week before our arrival, the famous Mato, the 
chief who seized and designed to eat Mr. Whalon, 
was killed by a bullet. Thus his judgment did not 
slumber. We saw the place where the poor trem- 
bling mate was seized and bound, and those whose 
interposition, under God, saved the agonizing cap- 
tive. " 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. \ 09 

Atuona, Hivaoa, May 9. — "The scenery of this 
broad, deep valley is more grand and diversified, if 
possible, than any we have before seen. The great 
rampart of rocks in the rear is the highest point of 
all the islands, and it is usually hung with a cloudy 
drapery. Like other places, the lofty spiral center, 
the sharp lateral ribs, the broken hills, the columns, 
spurs and pinnacles — some stratified, some lami- 
nated, some round, some angular, some truncated, 
some perpendicular, some leaning, some compact 
rock, some vesicular, amorphous, crystalline — in all 
shapes and positions — with heaps of scoria from the 
great Plutonic furnace, all bear the marks of fire, 
and all reveal their igneous origin. I cannot cease 
to gaze, and admire, and wonder, and adore, as I 
look upon the massive piles of rock, piled up, hill 
upon hill, ridge upon ridge, mountain upon moun- 
tain, serried, castellated, turreted, lifting their lofty 
points among the clouds, and holding the drapery 
of heaven upon their pinnacles. How did they rise 
out of the deep sea? And what power gave them 
these fantastic forms? They are masses of confused 
harmony, defying all the art of the limner, the pen 
and ink painter, and the descriptive powers of man. 

"As no one appeared on the shore at Atuona, we 
went into the bay in our boat ; but the surf being 
too strong to land, David, our good Peruvian, 
leaped into the sea and swam ashore. Passing 
through a dense jungle of hibiscus he found Hapuku 
and sent him down to the beach. Hapuku dove 
into the raging surf like a porpoise, and soon came 
dripping into our boat. Not being able to land in 



I TO Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

this bay, he took us into a lateral bay, one quarter 
of a mile wide, and three-quarters of a mile deep, 
where we run our boat upon a beautiful sand beach 
at the foot of a swxet valley, three miles long and 
full of people. Here we landed, and scrambling 
"on all fours" up a precipitous cliff, and up, up a 
weary hill, we walked in a burning sun one mile to 
the valley of Atuona. This is, perhaps, the richest 
valley we have seen. It is broad and deep, watered 
by an ample and limpid stream that runs babbling 
through the dale. It would seem as if all the sur- 
rounding hills had been laid under tribute to enrich 
and adorn this valley, and as if Providence had 
shaken the lap of nature into it. The trees are 
magnificent, and the shrubbery, plants and vines 
run riot in luxuriance. Our pathway from the 
beach to Hapuku's house was an avenue cut through 
the hibiscus, the cotton and other plants, and im- 
pervious to the sun. Seventeen scholars and about 
fifty people came out on short notice, and we exam- 
ined the school. It was perfectly quiet and atten- 
tive, and appeared well. Several of the scholars 
sang hymns sweetly. We preached, then baptized 
three adults and three children, organized a church 
of five, and returned to the ship after three hours at 
the station. " 

Omoa, Fattiiva, May 13. — "The general meeting 
of the mission was organized on the iith, and to- 
day the business of the meeting was taken up in 
earnest. All the brethren read written and full 
accounts of their stations and labors for the last two 



Memo7^ial of Rev. Titus Coan, 1 1 1 

years. Some of these reports were deeply interest- 
ing. The subject of Boarding Schools engrossed 
much attention, and it was resolved to establish at 
once a school for girls at Puamau, and one for boys 
at Hakanahi. For the purpose the delegates placed 
two hundred dollars in the hands of the appointed 
teachers. It is hoped the schools will be in a great 
measure self-supporting. . . . We feel sure that 
the benevolent ladies and gentlemen of the Hawaiian 
Islands will rejoice to contribute enough to clothe 
these sons and daughters of the Marquesas, and to 
rescue them from the fearful darkness of heathen 
cannibalism. I have rarely seen more perfect speci- 
mens of physical organization, or brighter faces and 
more active minds, than among these children. 
Many of them are beautiful, in spite of their olive 
complexion and sad surroundings, and it is painful 
to leave them, bright and blithesome as they are, to 
the horrors that await them if they are not soon 
redeemed from the deep darkness which covers 
them. " 

May 1 6. — "As the missionary who occupies Hana- 
vave is to return to Hawaii in the Mor7ting Star ^ 
Capt. Bingham and myself went in our boats to see 
the station, and to bring up his goods. The dis- 
tance is about four miles, and the coast along which 
we rowed presented rocky cliffs, towering domes 
and lofty precipices, rent, grooved and fluted. 
From these bold heights, of hundreds to two thou- 
sand feet, rills of pure water came gliding in silvery 
lines, and leaping in feathery cascades into the sea. 



112 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coati. 

Small valleys filled with trees and murmuring with 
limpid waters, appeared like enchantment. But 
these are all desolate. Fierce, bloody war has 
slaughtered the tenants, or driven them from these 
Edens of beauty. The spurs and headlands of the 
coast plunge abruptly into the sea, and the interior 
terminates in the castellated dividing ridge of the 
island, which seems to rest against the sky. 
We landed on a beach of sand and shingle, amidst 
a mixed throng, as noisy as loons. Captain B. 
assisted me in speaking to the people, and in exhort- 
ing them to forsake their false gods and come to the 
Savior. Hapuku also spoke to the people, who 
listened respectfully. After this I baptized a man 
and his wife — the first fruits of Hanavave unto God. 
"This day opened with the flash and rattle of mus- 
ketry. The whole valley was astir, and the sur- 
rounding cliffs and lofty hills echoed with shouts 
and reverberated with the sound of arms. One 
discharge followed another from dawn till noon. 
We were a little startled at first at the thought that 
war might be at the door; but, on inquiry, we were 
informed that the firing was in honor of a celebrated 
prophetess, who had recently died. The heathen 
party had built a house for the goddess forty-eight 
feet high, and on the top of this house they had 
placed a target, made of kapa, in the form of a 
moon. At this target the men vv^ere firing, and 
when one hit it the valley rang again with their 
triumphant shouts. " 

Ptcmnaii, May 19. — "We are again at this place, 
having returned here to land Kekela and family. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. l i 3 

Brother Parker, the native missionaries and myself 
came on shore to hold service. More than a hun- 
dred people collected under the trees, to whom we 
preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. Many came 
with spears, war-clubs and harpoons, axes, muskets 
and knives; and during service, little circles of three 
or five would light their pipes, have a delicious 
smoke, and then listen again to the speaker. Some 
had the head shaven all over; some in zones and 
belts; some left a tuft of hair on the crown or over 
the ear. The wildest taste and the most fantastic 
and capricious figures in tattooing were displayed 
upon the face and over the whole body. This tat- 
tooing makes the males look dark and fearful. 
Children are not tattooed; females but little. Con- 
sequently they often look like another and a milder 
race of beings. " 

May 20. — *'We hear that a savage gang from the 
eastern side of Puamau, came down to our boat 
while she was for a short time on the beach yester- 
day, and proposed to seize her. Numbers of 
friendly natives and the boat's crew being near they 
refrained from violence. These ruffians are of the 
tribe who seized Mr. Whalon." 

May 21. — "Having landed Kauwealoha at Ha- 
katu, Capt. Bingham called all hands ofi", spoke of 
the mercy of God in thus bringing our work at the 
islands to a happy close, and proposed prayer and 
thanksgiving. This offered, we sung the stanza, 
'Waft, waft, ye winds, his story,' etc., followed by 
three hearty cheers; when our sails were trimmed 



114 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

and the noble Morning Star turned her prow toward 
the Hawaiian Islands. Our vessel seems to feel the 
inspiration of heaven, and, like a fleet steed home- 
ward bound, she makes through the water at the 
rate of ten knots, dashing the white foam from her 
head and sides. . . . The Morning Star is a 
noble vessel, well modeled, well built, well furnished 
and well appointed. Altogether she is the neatest 
and most comfortable vessel of her size in which I 
have ever sailed. . . . The officers and crew 
have treated us with uniform kindness, and in all 
things we have been blessed, greatly blessed of our 
Divine Lord and Master, and to Him be all glory 
and praise forever." 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 115 



IX 



"This world is the place for labor and not for rest and enjoy- 
ment except that which may be found in serving God." 

— Payson. 

TO MES. E. COAN. 

November ^o, 1867. — "I see that you and other 
friends are indulging strong expectations of seeing 
us again in the land of our birth. We do not yet 
feel confident on the subject. Cares seem to thicken 
and labors to multiply as life advances. To divide 
up my great parish, to organize churches and see 
that the pastors provided for them are supported; 
to build church edifices along a coast of one hundred 
miles; to raise funds to support our missionaries 
among the heathen; to strive to supply our people 
with books and papers; to attend to the constant 
cases of church discipline; to be the only pastor for 
foreign residents and chaplain for seamen, together 
with the numberless and nameless other cares of a 
missionary life are labors which seem to hold us to 
our post. We were invited by the Board to visit 
the States in 1867. It now looks as though we could 
not go before 1869, and before that time who can 
tell what will be? So we leave it all with the Lord 
and only watch his hand with a desire to do his will. 

" ' I'll go and come, nor fear to die, 

Till from on high Thou call me home.' " 



ii6 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

TO MRS. G. COAN. 

December i8, 1867. . . . "Candidates for 
the ministry must be first selected, then taught 
theology, then tried for some time in the field, and 
when accepted, ordained and installed. Some of 
hem die, some prove incompetent or unworthy, some 
forsake for other work, and some are not acceptable 
to the people. It often seems as if our earthly 
pilgrimage would close ere this work of reconstruc- 
tion and re-organization is done. I have just given a 
vacation to a class of fifteen in theology, which I 
taught five days in a week besides spending two 
hours daily in revising and correcting a commentary 
on Matthew in the Hawaiian language. And now 
our anniversaries are coming on; a great Sabbath 
School celebration on the first of January, then the 
week of prayer and then touring. . . . Our 
work never seemed heavier or more responsible and 
absorbing than now. Do not think that our 
Hawaiian Christians are full grown and mature. 
They are all children and need parental care. I 
doubt whether our American friends realize this fact. 
If it is hard for parents to leave a family of five or 
ten small children how much more so for us to leave 
our five thousand?" 

TO REV. J. D. PARTS. 

April II, 1868. — "Yours of the 31st ult. found 
us as it left you, in fear and trembling. Your 
experiences and ours were alike. 'The whole land 
trembled, the earth reeled to and fro.' I would 
have answered your letter in an hour had it been 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 117 

possible, but I have been obliged to wait the tardy 
heels of our post-boy. Of the horrors of Kau I 
need not write, for you must have heard all. The 
scenes and the sufferings there were awful. Nearly 
all the foreigners of Eastern Kau fled this way after the 
terrific shock and eruption of Thursday the 2d inst. 
That shock filled all Kau, Hilo and Puna with awe 
and consternation. It seemed as if the very pillars 
and frame work of creation would break. For three 
minutes while it continued, I had scarcely a hope for 
our house or for our town. . . . One woman 
was killed near us by a falling bank that buried her, 
and her husband received, as we suppose, a mortal 
wound. Scores of people escaped as by a miracle 
while the rocks were falling around them. The sea 
came in up to Front street, and threatened to over- 
whelm all along the shore. That was a fearful night; 
people left their houses and walked the streets, or 
clustered under trees or camped in the fields, watch- 
ing for the morning. But God was merciful and our 
losses are not to be mentioned. 

"For eight days we have held daily prayer meet- 
ing, and the people flock in in crowds. Fear 
arouses men, but faith and love alone secure 
obedience and life. O! that all would flee to the 
stronghold. Earthquakes are to me more terrific 
than volcanic eruptions, because they come so 
suddenly, giving no warning and no time to escape, 
while men may usually walk deliberately away from 
a lava stream, taking many of their precious things 
with them. How blessed to feel that *God is a 
Refuge and Strength.'" 



ii8 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

TO EEV. J. SESSIONS. D. D. 

* 

July 2, 1868. — "I venture another expression of 
my kind memories of our Christian fellowship com- 
menced more than twelve years ago in the dear 
Emerald Bower, and which will, I trust, run par- 
allel with eternal ages. The infirmities of advanc- 
incr life make it hard for vou to drive vour facile 
pen, and I ought not. perhaps, to inflict my scrawls 
upon you any more; but if you cannot write with- 
out painful effort, just feel yourself absolved, and if 
you feel unable to answer this note I will not feel 

neglected The whole number who 

have died in my church is 7,3/3, and the congrega- 
tion of the dead is much greater than that of the 
living. In surveying the past and present, and in 
looking forward to the future, solemn thoughts 
come over me. To think that I have been a savor 
of life or of death to so man}- thousands is over- 
powering; How many of the departed members of 
this church are now before the throne of God? 
How many are fed by the Lamb who is in the midst 
of the throne, and led bv him to Livin^" fountains 
of water? And how many have been cast out for 
want of the wedding garment? And what of the 
unworthy pastor? 

•• 'When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt eome. 
To call thy ransomed people home. 
Shall I among them stand?' 

" I have 710 confidence in self, but I hope in the 
Lord. . You have read the startling reports 

of our earthquakes, of earthy and fiery eruptions, 
and oi the inrolling sea. This island has been 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 119 

awlully shaken and rent like a potter's vessel. For 
two and a half months we had uncounted shakings 
of the earth. But the 2d of April was a day never 
to be forgotten. The mountains and hills trembled, 
the rocks rent, thousands of fissures opened in our 
streets and fields, and over all the southern portion 
of the island. By the rocking of the earth the sea 
rose and rushed with thundering power upon the 
land, and men and animals were in consternation. 
Nothing was stable, and we could only look up. 
The rocky ribs, the pillars and walls of earth trem- 
bled and rent, and nature shuddered. Up to this 
dav the scars and the debris lie thick around us, 
but the earth rests and is quiet. " 

TO MR. MARTIN LORD. (A fcllow towusman.) 

November 5, 1868. . . . "Your mother was a 
most faithful and patient correspondent. Her letters 
were so full and particular, that reading them 
seemed almost like seeing my old haunts and my 
old friends. I mourn for her, but I would not call 
her back. I believe she is in a world of life, in that 
'Happy land,' not 'faraway,' .... 

"I am glad to hear that you have no death arsenal 
in your town. May such a fiery fountain never 
open again in Killingworth. We have earthquakes 
and burning mountains, and rivers of fire on our 
island, but one breathing hole of hell — a liquor 
store — in Hilo would give me more anxiety and 
fear than all the tremblings of our hills, the rending 
of our rocks, and the roar of our volcanoes. Hith- 



I20 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

erto God has heard our prayers, and saved us from 
the scorching of that infernal fire — a grog-shop. 

"We still have repeated shocks of earthquake. 
These have continued for more than seven months, 
and they are counted by thousands. Our sea has, 
also, been often disturbed, and in many places our 
shores have sunk three to six feet. In August, I 
traveled a hundred miles through the districts where 
the earthquakes, the eruptions, and the sea waves 
had been most awful. I measured the great land- 
slide, the height of the tidal waves, the subsidence 
of the shores, etc. Over two hundred houses and 
about eighty lives were destroyed in these convul- 
sions. 

"We have great peace in Hilo. Our town Sabbath 
Schools number nearly live hundred scholars. Our 
congregations are large, and our monthly concert 
contributions are most liberal. Our people give 
cheerfully and with a will. " 

TO JOEL AND HANNAH BEAN. 

July 15, 1868. . . . "I hail with delight the 
news that 'Friends' are publishing in Chicago 
The Herald of Peace. Such papers should be 
greatly multiplied, or, better still, all moral and 
Christian periodicals should, in my humble judg- 
ment, hang out the flag of peace, that on all proper 
occasions they should be known as opposed to war 
and strife, and bear their testimony on the side of 
peace and good-will. The pulpit should especially 
speak out in no indistinct notes, and the gospel 
trumpet should give no uncertain sound. Your 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 121 

paper has a good title — Herald of Peace. Let it 
go forth on the wings of all winds ; let its notes 
be the echo of angel voices ; let it proclaim the 
advent of the Prince of Peace; let it show the real 
fruits of the Spirit of Peace; and let it paint, in the 
pure light of heaven, the glorious future as flashed 
upon us in the rapt glow of prophets, ' when 
nothing shall hurt or destroy,' when 'nation shall 
no more lift up sword against nation,' when 'the 
Tabernacle of God shall be with men,' and John's 
vision of a new heaven and a new earth shall be 
realized. All this must come to pass, and its com- 
ing will be hastened just in proportion as Christians 
one by one come out of cruel and bloody Babylon, 
and by word and deed, and by patient suffering, if 
called to it, bear witness against the heathenish and 
the brutal customs of war. War will never be 
abolished by the timid, the conservative and the 
wise men of this world, who call peace men and 
Peace Societies foolish and fanatical; who say 'you 
must take the world as you find it;' ' you cannot 
stop war, and all your theories on the subject of 
peace are Utopian, because impracticable, and you 
may as well let the matter take care of itself.' But 
war will cease in spite of these reasons, and it would 
cease at once over all Christendom if every professor 
of the Christian religion would arise and shake him- 
self from the blinding dust of the war system, and 
resolve to have no more to do with the bloody code, 
but to obey the Royal Law, 'Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself.' Such a united and decided 
testimony from the Church, headed by her cloven- 



122 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

tongued ministers and her thunder-toned presses, 
would silence all the batteries of our enemies, and 
staunch the red blood that flows in broad waves over 
the world. 

''Sister H. asks our opinion as to the condition 
of the soul between deatli and the general judgment. 
We believe in no intermediate state, such as purga- 
tory or insensibility, but that spirits go to their final 
award. Judas went to his own place ^ and the peni- 
tent thief to Paradise. Paul believed that for him 
to be absent from the body was to be present with 
the Lord." 

TO EEV. J. D. PAKIS. 

December 2^, 1869. — "You are indeed full of work, 
and I was never more so. From dawn to bed time 
there is no rest; and it is well that we have enough to 
do. You are still Pastor Paris, though some of our 
brethren thought you had left that work. I do not 
disagree with you in the general doctrine of native 
pastorates. The principle is sound and rational 
when not pressed to sweeping extremes. There a're 
exceptions, not a few; and candid, experienced 
missionaries, of all others, ought to be the men to 
decide every local question of this kind on its own 
merits. I do not believe that a missionary in the 
Fijiis, in Micronesia, the Marquesas, or in Patagonia 
should at once refuse to act as pastor, or shepherd of 
a little flock of hopeful converts and leave them to 
be fed and guided by one of their own number. All 
countries are not like China, India, Turkey, Persia. 
You know all this and much more, so why need I 
tell you? 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 123; 

''The Rev. Lord Charles Hervey and a scientific 
German traveler are here. Lord Hervey preached 
on Sabbath evening in the foreign church. His 
sermon was simple, earnest, evangelical. He cannot 
live with Bishop Staley, and he will leave the 
islands. . . . O! this going to the United 
States! It is a constant trouble to me. It seems 
like breaking up life. How to leave my people, and 
wha.t to say and do if we go, are great questions for 
a small man. Others rush on even to Europe, but 
I cannot get on such light wings. Pray for us, tha; 
our dear Lord will direct in this matter; and we do 
pray that 'If the Lord go not with us. He will not 
suffer us to go.' " 

TO REV. H. BINGHAM, WIFE AND siSTEKS. (After the death 
of their father.) 

January 5, 1870.-—" How can I speak of this 
great sorrow and abundant consolation which have 
come upon you? You mourn; so do I. Can you 
mourn more than we? I suppose you do, yet it 
hardly seems possible. In him and in our common 
Father we are all one family. When your blessed 
sire went up and dropped his earth-mantle, my 
spirit cried out, 'My father! my father! The chariot 
of Israel and the horsemen thereof. ' When I heard 
of his illness and that he was not at Pittsburgh (at 
the meeting of the A. B. C. F; M.), I waited 
anxiously and with a presentiment that the Master 
had come and called for him. Dear, precious, 
honored father! Pioneer and Patriarch of this mis- 
sion. O, how we remember the first warm greeting 



124 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

of your parents; and ever since that precious hour of 
meeting in the dear cottage at Honolulu, June 6, 
1835, our hearts have clung to them as to a first 
love. We 7n7ist weep with you all; my tears flow 
Avhile I write, and they will not cease. And yet we 
do rejoice. We rejoice in his faith, his love, his 
zeal, his patience, his life-work, his ripe Christian 
character, his ingathering into the heavenly garner. 
He is not dead, but sleepeth. He does not sleep, 
but Avaketh. He rests and yet is all activity. Do 
you not rejoice that he is with your precious mother 
and your more precious Savior? 

" ' Lead thou me on 
Till I have passed in peace the shadowy land, 
And on the heaven-lit hills my feet shall stand, 
So long thy power has blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and ton'ent, till 
The night is gone.' 

''And now precious children of our Common 
Father, be comforted and may the God of eternal 
love give you a sure hope, and everlasting consola- 
tion." 

TO REV. J. D. PARIS. 

February 17, 1870. — "I am in full sympathy with 
you in your cares, desires, fears, hopes and toils. 
Many of our experiences are in common. Your 
dear children touch the tenderest chords of your 
heart and call up anxious solicitude for their present 
and future, their temporal and eternal good. Then 
comes the care of all the churches around you. How 
shall they stand and graze and hear fruit? And 



Me?norial of Rev. Titus Coan. 125 

what will become of them when you depart? Next 
the general interests of our Master's kingdom in the 
land press upon your heart. All this I feel, and the 
feeling deepens and deepens, almost to sadness at 
times. . . . And in the midst of these cares 
and anxieties crash goes the dear Morning Star 
upon the rocks of Kusaie. Is this our jubilee? and 
can we feel jubilant? Now, let us feel the rock 
under us, and look up. No unusual trial or tempta- 
tion has come upon us, and the old promise of a 
'way to escape' stands firmer than the eternal hills. 
Why fear or be sad? Let us trust and sing 'Nearer,, 
my God, to Thee,' and when the morning breaketh 
we will say, 

" ' 'Tis gone — the dreadful, stormy night 
Is gone with all its fears. ' 

I thank you, beloved armor-bearer of our Great Cap- 
tain, for the kind things you are pleased to say of an 
unworthy fellow-laborer, and I feel your plea that we 
remain at our post this year. But we had accepted 
the second invitation of the Board, and the numerous 
and urgent calls of personal friends to visit the States. 
Our hearts and treasures are here, and our minds 
swung heavily over to assent to go. At our time of 
life, it appears to us, that, not to go this year is not 
to go at all. And as a new factor in our plans for 
going Mrs. C. needs medical advice." 

TO MK. M. LORD. 

February y 1870. . . . "When we came here, 
in 1835, money was unknown to almost every native 
of the district, and we might as well have searched 



126 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

for an Egyptian mummy or a Cyclops as for a silver 
dollar. The benevolent contributions of the people 
commenced in giving little leaf-mats, tapas, arrow- 
root and fish, amounting to a few dollars' value in a 
year. But like Ezekiel's waters that issued from 
the sanctuary, the stream of beneficence widened and 
deepened in its flow, so that our cash contributions 
have sometimes gone as high as $5,000 in a 
year; and the whole amount for the past thirty years 
would be $70,000 to $80,000. The change has 
been that of growth, and it is wonderful; while it is 
all of grace. The bishop, about whom you wrote 
and who came here to supplant our churches and 
schools, has met with a great overthrow. He went 
to England, United States and South America to 
collect funds for a great cathedral. Not long since 
he returned with a small part of the money he ex- 
pected; but what confounded him was, that his own 
flock at the islands rejected him and sent to England 
for a Low Church Evangelical pastor. So the whole 
scheme for ignoring the missionary work here, and 
supplanting us, seems now to be broken up, and the 
counsel of the froward carried headlong. 
Please be so kind as to give my great love to all 
friends in Killingworth, and also to the rocks and 
the rills, to the vales and the hills of my still 
cherished native town. Shall I recognize one face 
there? How changed all will appear. Changed for 
the better I trust, and many are changed from 'the 
corruptible to the incorruptible, from the mortal to 
the immortal, and from glory to glory.' " 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 127 



X. 



"And I am His— O! heart be faithful still! 
Still let Him lead me as it seems Him best! 
"With Him to combat, or with Him to rest, 
March or encamp according to His will." 

It was after an absence of more than thirty-five 
years, that Mr. and Mrs. Coan revisited their native 
shores. An almost playful prophecy on the part of 
Mrs. Coan when about to leave the United States in 
1834, that they would return when a railroad 
across the continent should be completed, had 
its fulfilment in the spring of 1870. The Rev. Dr. 
Field, in his introduction to "Adventures in Pata- 
gonia," thus writes of their return: 

''When they came back they found another world 
than that which they had left. All things had 
become new. They had made their outward voyage 
in a small sailing vessel. They returned in a steam- 
ship. When they landed in San Francisco they had 
scarcely seen a railroad. Now they were whirled in 
fire-drawn cars up the mountains and over the plains, 
across the whole breadth of the continent. The 
fame of the missionary had gone before him, and 
wherever he came among the churches he was 
welcomed with an enthusiasm such as had not been 
manifested since the heroic Judson came back from 
Burmah years before." 



T28 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

During the eleven months of their absence from 
Hawaii they visited twenty States and Territories, 
and Mr. Coan's "talks in large and smaller assemblies 
numbered two hundred and thirty-nine." Of his 
opportunities to meet Christian gatherings he says: 

*'They are exhilarating, and one thing which 
charmed me, if possible more than any other, was 
the fact that partition walls were gradually giving 
way between different evangelical denominations." 

TO HIS SON. 

Niles, Mich., July, 1870. — " I left this place 
after one night's rest and went by call to Oberlin to 
attend the meeting of the General Congregational 
Conference of the State. I had a most interesting 
season and saw about two hundred ministers and 
delegates of the first order of intelligence and piety. 
I was the guest of Presidents Fairchild and Finney, 
of Professors Cowles and Morgan. On the Sabbath 
I spoke four times. The last time, in the evening, 
was before an assembly of some two thousand five 
hundred. I have never met a more enlightened, 
attentive and appreciative audience than in Oberlin. 
The college is a great success, and Oberlin is a place 
of marked intelligence and goodness. Our three 
weeks in Niles have been one continued ovation. 
You know the friends here. We were received with 
open doors and arms, and with such enthusiastic 
love as no one ever feigns. Since I have been here, 
I have been called to speak in public eight times. 
I pray the Lord that good may follow in the name 
of Jesus." 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 129 

TO MISS BINGHAM. 

Brooklyn, October 13, 1870. . . , '*0! the 
busy, racing life we are leading, we sigh for repose 
and a quiet evening with loved friends. But we are 
in a whirl all the time. I can't think because we 
have so much to think of, and we can't talk because 
we have so many things to say, nor can we see any- 
body because there are so many bodies in the way. 
We are a little weary and we long to get back to 
our nest in the Bower. Our friends here are legion 
and they almost kill us with kindness. We had a 
blessed season in Rochester, in dear old Auburn, in 
New Haven and in the place of my birth. In New 
Haven I saw the grave of your beloved and honored 
father's dust. I collected a few leaves and a little 
grass from the peaceful sleeper's grave, and enclose 
the simple memorials to his beloved children. 

*'I am to lecture in Plymouth Church this evening, 
to-morrow evening speak in Dr. Eddy's church, and 
on the 15th go to Hartford to spend a Sabbath, 
then to Springfield and on to Worcester to meet Dr. 
Treat and with him to move here and there. Not 
much rest in prospect, but there remaineth a rest. " 

TO MRS. E. COAN. 

New Bedford, November 4, 1870. — "On and on 
we go, leaving the past behind, and yet we do not, 
we cannot, leave it. On it comes after us, surround- 
ing and flooding us with its deep-traced memories. 
Our visit to Killingworth, O! how short! The 
house you lived in, the rock whence I was hewn, 
the churchyard, the departed, the living, the 



130 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

changes, the unchanged and changeless. Dear 
childhood's memories came crowding in flocks to the 
soul — the scenes and friends of youth — love, joy, 
sorrows, sins, how they came back on wings. Our 
reception in New Haven was wonderfully warm, and 
we spent a most wakeful and happy v/eek there. 
How unworthy we are to receive such favors. 
Surely God is good, even to the unthankful. I hope 
the papers have told you of many things done and 
said in Brooklyn. It was a great and good meeting. 
But there was too much at a time. It surfeits and 
overwhelms one. I love detail, to eat slowly, to 
see distinctly, to do and think deliberately, to enjoy 
calmly, to hear and feel intelligently. But 'there is 
a time for all things,' even for crowds and rushings 
and mass-meetings. So Brooklyn has its time and 
place and memories. . . . The calls from Fall 
River, Boston, Providence, Springfield and very 
many other places look formidable. Meanwhile 
winter comes on apace and we begin to shiver. We 
love our country and our hearts yearn over our 
precious friends, and yet we often long for the balmy 
air and the dear home in the Emerald Bower. Our 
hearts cling to the Hawaiians as our dear children in 
the Lord, and 'should the blessed Master say to us, 
'Go, return to the land of your adoption,' we will 
hail the day with delight." 

TO JOEL AND HANNAH BEAN. 

Philadelphia, February 18, 187 1. . . "Noth- 
ing short of the full orbed glory of Jesus and the 
completed fruition of heaven affords so much joy and 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 131 



satisfaction as the true communion of saints on earth. 
Why is it that all the professed disciples of the God 
of peace and love do not more freely exercise and 
more fully enjoy this heavenly gift. To dwell in 
God is to dwell in love, for 'God is love.' I am 
prompted to write thus to-day by a precious visit 
last evening at the house of your and our dear 
brother and sister, Samuel R. and Anna Shipley. 
Your mother and sister were present with other dear 
friends, among whom was Sarah F. Smiley, just 
returned from her mission in the Orkney and Shetland 
Islands. We conversed and prayed together; and 
I am sure that our souls sung out, and we made 
melody in our hearts to the Lord. How often we 
spake of you and wished that if it were the will of 
God, we might have you with us. We recounted 
the pleasure we enjoyed in those hours and days in 
Hilo and in Iowa. West Branch bloomed and 
fruited again as the 'garden of the Lord.' How we 
love to live over these joys and to revive their fresh 
fragrance as we pass along our pilgrim path to the 
'land of pure delight.' Shall we not meet there 
soon? I am sure that our earthly journey is nearly 
ended, and we desire to return to the dear people 
God has given us, not to live there always, but to 
finish our course, to set our house in order, and to 
await the call of our dear Lord to give account of 
our stewardship. Will he not be 'gracious to our 
unrighteousness,' and not enter into judgment with 
us? 



132 Me7norial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

TO HIS SON. 

March lO, 1871. . . . "We had a most in- 
teresting week in Washington and received many- 
kind attentions. We met the President twice and 
also many of the Senators and Representatives. We 
were greatly interested in Gen. Howard and his 
grand University for the Freedmen. We visited 
the Capitol, the Patent Office, the Soldiers' Rest and 
the Soldiers' Cemetery. We also went over to 
Arlington Heights, into the desolate house of the 
rebel, Gen. Lee, over his estate, and through the 
cemetery where some fifteen thousand soldiers lie 
buried in ranks. One day we spent in visiting Mt. 
Vernon. 

"From the time we reached Iowa until now we 
have been most hospitably recei\'ed, and our friends 
in all towns and cities have vied with each other in 
showing us kind attentions. We are everywhere 
loaded with blessing. We have more invitations to 
visit and speak than we can accept. It is a little 
hard for us to keep warm in this climate. One 
difficulty is, that in some places we find very warm 
rooms and in others very cold ones. Cold weather 
and bleak winds are too rude and rough for your 
precious mother. But we trust the Lord will carry 
us through. " 

The rapid decline of Mrs. Coan's health became 
alarming, and they hastened their return to the 
quiet home in the tropics, leaving much unseen and 
unsaid, but followed by many prayers and remem- 
bered in loving appreciation. One of the public 
papers of the day contained this beautiful tribute: 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 133 

"We do not believe there are many men in this 
world, going down into the vale of years, to whom 
there are more precious memories of the past, or to 
whom a review of life can be more agreeable than to 
that honored servant of God, Rev. Titus Coan. 
For nearly a year he has been a most wel- 
come guest among the friends of missions all over 
the country, and tens of thousands of people have 
listened to the simple story of the triumphs of God's 
Word. For thirty-six years, and with never-falter- 
ing vigor, he sowed the precious seed of divine truth. 
Having given to his countrymen the most 
striking of all possible testimony to the value of the 
missionary work — having given an inspiration to the 
cause in this land scarcely any other man has ever 
done — having lifted up that great work to a noble 
pre-eminence by showing the moral grandeur of its 
results in the isles of the sea, having given the most 
delightful and animating view of the joy of the mis- 
sionary work proved by his own personal and most 
happy experience, and having taken leave of his 
countrymen with his most fervent benedictions upon 
them, he .is now on his way of return to the Sand- 
wich Islands to finish up what is left of his work, and 
find his grave among those whose fitness for heaven 
has been the labor of his life. A blessed welcome 
on his return awaits him there, and a more blessed 
one to the realms of light, when a long life of eminent 
usefulness is closed. " 



134 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



XI. 



"And so the years flowed on, and only cast 
Light and more light upon the shining way. 
That more and more shone to the perfect day; 
Always in tenser, clearer than the past; 
Because they only bore him, on glad wing, 
Nearer the Light of Light, the Presence of the King." 

— Miss Harvergal. 

"On our return to Hilo," Mr. Coan writes in his 
autobiography, "we met a cordial welcome from all, 
and the church and people were in a prosperous 
state. But a heavy shadow darkened over our home. 
The dear one who has been its light and joy for thirty- 
six years, was growing feebler day by day, and the 
signs of her departure could not be mistaken.- 
Calmly she began to set her house in order, to be 
ready to welcome the coming messenger. She 
assured us of her unshaken faith in Christ, and pre- 
pared farewell suggestions for the dear ones she was 
soon to leave." 

On the Sabbath, Sept. 29, 1872, he wrote: 

"The solemn hour has struck — a great wave of 
sorrow has rolled over me. My precious Fidelia, 
my companion, counselor, friend, my loving and 
faithful wife, ascended at half-past one to-day, with 
the celestial escort and a shout of victory, to the 
heavenly hills. She was fully prepared, and God's 
grace was sufficient unto the end. Thanks be to 
God who gave her the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. Pain and long disease had wasted her 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 135 

dear frame to a skeleton, but her pure spirit 
triumphed over all. Her faith was calm, clear and 
firm; not a doubt, not a shadow came over her soul. 
She rested on Jesus, and in Jesus with entire trust 
and perfect peace. She was at his feet always. 
Now she wears a starry crown. 

" 'No shadows yonder! 
All light and song. 
No weeping yonder! 
All fled away.' " 

TO REV. J. D. PARIS. 

May 9, 1873. — "Where art thou, beloved disciple, 
my brother and companion in tribulation and in the 
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ? For long 
months I have not heard that voice which used to 
cheer me, or seen a note from that pen which used 
so often to greet me. I do not chide thee, but I 
wish to inquire after thy welfare and to remind thee 
of olden times when we worked and prayed and 
rejoiced and wept together. You are busy, and 
things around and near you occupy your time and 
thought. But you do, I doubt not, sometimes 
think of your brother in the solitary Bower, and of 
the precious dust, thine and mine, so calmly sleeping 
near each other in their rural beds, /am permitted 
the mournful pleasure to go often to the place where 
all that is mortal of my precious companion sleeps 
its last, long sleep. This is a comfort, and 

" ' It gives me solace in my heavy grief. 
The dear lone spot where her loved form doth lie 
Yields to my stricken, aching heart relief. 
Chastens my sorrow, while it wakes a sigh, 
Tells me she has gone, yet speaks her presence nigh.' 



136 Memorial of Rei\ Titus Coan. 

' ' X. r^^rCiV liiiilK 01 tile Cili/n li'itSi iilu tiic DcrtCCt 

triumph of my shining angel without thinking of the 
ver}" similiar triumph of your precious one. The 
two have met and reviewed the way in which they 
were led till they left the same tabernacle, mounting 
on Hke wings, and pursuing the same shining track 
to the realms of 'pure and perfect day.' " 

TO HIS SOX. rOn his birthday.) 

January 23, 1874. — "I would make a feast for 
you. could I only bring you here to the old Bower 
again. What changes ha^e come and gone over 
our whole family during the fleeting years. One 
member has gone before, another is sure to follow 
soon, while the rest will all be gathered one by one, 
within the short period of fifly^ years. It was your 
blessed mother's fondest hope, and is your father's 
deepest desire that we may all meet in J03' and glory 
upon the eternal h:!:s. To her and to me the way 
seemed plain and the distance short. Her hopes 
are realized — she is now where she longed to be. I 
hope that we who a little longer wait, will not miss 
the way, nor fail to find the door. Jesus says, *I 
am the Way, I am the Door. ' A child-hke confi- 
dence in Jesus, a li::'e leaning on his arm will 
secure our safe passport through this life of trials to 
a land where sorrow never enters. True reUgion is 
rational and true philosophy. It will not chang'e one's 
physical constitution, nor ward off all the wounds of 
life, but it wiU help us to endure and to overcome 
the trials of our earthly state. Joy and peace come 
of believing, and faith gives a foretaste of rest even 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 137 

now. It has a wonderful power to hush the tempest 
of human passion and to calm the conflicting ele- 
ments in the heart of man. It fortifies against 
temptation; it secures against despondency, and it 
nerves the soul with energy to meet the responsi- 
bilities, and to discharge the duties of life. I think 
of you often and with all the tenderness of a fond 
father's love. Write me freely about all your inter- 
ests; I feel as deep an interest in them as in my own." 

TO PEOF. J. D. DANA. 

October 6, 1874. — "I was much cheered by your 
kind letter. I do bless the Lord that your precious 
life is spared and that so much strength is given you 
to attend to the important duties of your profession, 
the illustration and defence of Christian science. I 
regard all Scripture as divine, and all true science 
none the less so; and the student and teacher of the 
one should ever be the student and teacher of the 
other. Both are filled with lofty and profound 
mysteries, and both proclaim the Infinite, Eternal and 
All-wise God. Both are and must be reconcilable, 
and it has always been a joy to me that, in all your 
multiplied and varied labors in the department of 
Natural Science, you have recognized the Divine 
hand. It gives me great pleasure to hear that your 
beloved partner and children are well. Thus the 
good Lord smiles upon your tabernacle. Is it not 
a great blessing that you have a son to take your 
place in dear old Yale when you shall have gone up 
to the high school of heaven to explore and expatiate 
in the boundless realms of glory? I notice with 



138 Mejnoi'ial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

interest 'Meeting of the American Association' at 
Hartford, and that your son, as I suppose, took an 
active part in the exercises, and that our honored 
friend, C. S. Lyman, was vice-president. 

** Cordial thanks for your very kind and apprecia- 
tive congratulations on my new social relations.* To 
me it seems a boon of mercy from God to cheer 
and help during the balance of my mortal state, 
otherwise desolate and sad. My health is remark- 
ably good, and I am able to do as much work on 
the Sabbath as in former years, besides continuous 
labor during the week. Mrs. Coan and I purpose to 
make the tour of Puna next week, and, perhaps, 
visit the volcano. 

"You ask if there is any elevated coral reef- rock 
around the shores of Hawaii. I think not. I have 
traveled the whole circuit of this island by land, and 
in boats, canoes, and larger vessels, and there is 
hardly a point along the shores which I have not 
noticed carefully. Honolulu is built, much of it, 
upon elevated coral, and there are large areas of it 
in other portions of the Oahu shores. But I find 
nothing like it on Hawaii nei. You are aware that 
corals, even under the water, are not abundant on 
the 'weather side' of our islands, and all the good 
specimens we have are obtained by diving. Should 
I hereafter find that I am mistaken in these state- 
ments, I will with great pleasure inform you. 

*T know that you give as much attention to our 
peanut group as their relative importance demands; 



* Mr. Coan's second marriage was to a daughter of the Rev. 
Hiram Bingham. 



\ 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 139. 



and, probably, you are posted on our little political 
questions. There is now a probability that you will 
see his majesty, David Kalakaua, our king, in the 
States before long. Should he visit our country it 
is hoped he will fall into good company and behave 
well. We think he lacks 'one thing,' and that the 
most important of all." 

TO HIS SON. 

"You are right in regarding health as the greatest 
temporal boon, and in wisely preserving it. Good 
lodgings, generous diet, active (not crowding) 
business, proper relaxation, pleasant social relations, 
and a good conscience are the great preservatives of 
health. What all men need more than long vaca- 
tions, is regular, daily alternation of business and 
relaxation. I do not like to see a horse worn down 
to skin and bones by excessive and continuous labor, 
and then sent out to graze for six months. With 
good food and considerate care the animal may 
perform a reasonable amount of labor daily and keep 
in good flesh and spirits. And the same law applies 
to man. But the world is greatly in the wrong ia 
its 'inhumanity to man' and its cruelty to beasts. 
With proper regard to the laws of life a man may 
live eighty years, and perform an immense amount 
of labor, without sickness or mental gloom. But we 
must all learn by experience. This is an expensive 
school, and it often costs money and health, and 
life, even, before the lesson is learned, but there 
seems to be no other teacher that is heeded by most 
men. . . . You will rest assured, for I speak 



140 Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 

from experience, that you may find comfort and 
strength by cultivating the religious sentiments 
socially. This is one great reason for the organiza- 
tion of churches and religious associations; and, 
although thousands fail to comprehend, or abuse 
these blessings, yet very many find their purest 
pleasures, and their most healthy development and 
growth in the cultivation of the social Christian 
relations. 

TO KEY. LOWELL SMITH, D. D. 

December 15, 1874. — "Did we, as in olden times, 
get our pens from the geese, we might say that we 
keep our quills flying. We now change the phrase 
and say we keep our metal warm. Well, I am glad of 
it, for we love to talk, and if we cannot do it face to 
face with our lips, let us do it apart with our metallic 
pens. Thanks for yours of the 8th. That was 
transit day, and to-morrow we expect to hear of 
successful observations on Hawaii, Oahu, and Kauai. 
We had a grand view of our little sister planet; and 
with the aid of field and smoked glasses we saw 
that beautiful orb sailing across the disk of the sun 
for more than half an hour. Then the sun was 
veiled with heavy clouds, and the vision of ages 
disappeared. I hope you saw it, brother, for it was 
our first opportunity during a long life. Shall we 
see the transit of 1882? Or shall we have been 
translated to higher realms, 

" 'Where on the heavenly hills 
A brighter sun shall rise, 
And with His radiance fill 
Those fairer, purer skies?' 



Memorial of J^ev. Titus Coan. 141 

"I am not tired of this world, nor weary of its 
work, and yet I do desire 'a better country' if the 
amazing grace of our Savior shall bring me there. " 

TO REV. J. D. PARIS. 

1874. — "What times have passed over us 



since the early years of missionary life. I look back 
upon them as a romantic dream or as a bright and 
vanished vision. We are both older now, and, 
through grace, I believe we are wiser and better. 
And surely, if we are saved by grace we are much 
nearer our Home than we then were. Our work on 
mortal shores will soon close. Our sun is already 
on the western side of the mountains, and mine will 
soon dip its disk into the shoreless ocean just at our 
feet. How deeply I wish that I had never sinned 
— and yet, had I never transgressed how could I feel 
the joys of pardon, and the purifying power of 
atoning blood? How could I sing with the re- 
deemed that 'new song' whose silver notes burst 
It 

forth over all the shining hills of heaven? What joy 
can exceed that of a sinner saved by grace? That 
life which was rescued from the wreck, lifted from 
the pit or plucked from devouring fire, is doubly 
dear, and its raptures doubly ecstatic. " 

TO REV. PI. BINGHAM. (On hearing of the death of 
Mrs. Taylor, an associate missionary.) 
February 17, 1875. — "The return of the Morning 
Star awakens complex emotions. Sorrow and joy 
are mixed in our cup. We were, of course, dis- 
appointed, not to say a little saddened, not to see 
our dear and longed for brother and sister, and yet 



f 
142 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

our joy was great on hearing of the good hand of 
our God upon you, in giving you to hear a noise 
and see a shaking among the dry bones of Apaiang, 
and in granting you so much of physical strength 
and of moral courage as led you to venture to remain 
on your distant and sea-girt watch tower another 
year. 

"We had been exceeding joyful to think of your 
solitude as having been broken, and your strength 
increased by Christian associates in your toils and 
cares; but the sad tidings that one had so soon 
and so unexpectedly left on pinions plumed for 
heaven, thrilled us with painful sympathy and 
caused our tears to flow. Not on her _ account 
who was shining in realms of, light, but on account 
of the bleeding heart of a desolated husband, a 
motherless babe, a disappointed brother and sister, 
and 'to our slow hearts' the loss of a 'light' amidst 
those gloomy shades of death. But all is of the 
Lord and all is well. Come disappointment or 
gratification, sorrow or joy, weakness or strength, 
all are of God, and pain or pleasure are sister spirits 
sent from heaven to lead us forward in the path of 
-duty and upward to the bosom of our God where 
^Oceans of endless pleasure roll." 

"But let me, dear ones, comfort and congratulate 
you, while my melting heart magnifies the grace of 
God, that your prayers are heard; that your tear- 
urns are in heaven; and that after a dreary night of 
storm and gloom, the heavens shine upon you from 
above. I am more joyful than I can express for the 
news of God's grace in Apaiang. Take courage, for 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coafi. 143 

you shall see still greater things; 'For as much as ye 
know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.'" 

TO REV. J. MOORE, President of Earlham College. 

May 8, 1875. . . . "We thank the Lord for 
adding your name to our list of Christian friends 
whom we hope to meet again upon the heavenly 
hills, at the close of our mortal pilgrimage. We 
doubt not that to you, as to us, life in its past, its 
present, and its future has more of brightness and 
joy than of shadow and pain; while the vast and 
measureless coming cycles open before us scenes of 
unwearied activity and of ineffable delight. 
You appreciate Haleakala. It is an ample mural 
bowl, and shows the mighty hand of the 'Potter.' 
Surely, *He lifteth up the islands as a very little 
thing,' and the casts of his great furnaces are many 
and marvelous. We are glad to hear of your 
success in the line of Natural History, and we trust 
that you will never feel that your tour to our group 
has been in vain, either in a physical or spiritual 
sense. I trust we shall not lose sight of one another 
during the balance of our mortal pilgrimage, nor 
fail to meet beyond 'The River.' 

TO JOEL BEAN. 

Makawao, June 26, 1875. — "Thy very precious 
letter is before me. I believe in all its sentiments 
most fully. My heart is in eternal sympathy and 
full accord with the doctrine and the fact of the 
essential, vital unity of all believers, as also in the 
broad and boundless and eternal variety, in form 



144 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

and expression, of spiritual life, in its inception, 
development, continuous growth, and everlasting 
range, and all in sweet and beauteous harmony. 
Ah, how glorious the visions, when the material 
and mortal mirrors which now reflect the light of 
eternal love in shadows shall be removed, and all the 
redeemed shall see with 'open face, the glory of 
God,' and reflect that image Avithout the shadow of 
a cloud. This vision, though it now tarry, will 
come, nor will it tarry long. ... And now 
do you inquire about our new place of date? Well, 
we have just finished our anniversaries in Honolulu. 
You know something of their number, variety and 
character. All have been full of interest. Wishing 
to see friends, churches, and schools on East Maui 
once more, my precious L. and I came from Hono- 
lulu to Wailuku and thence to this mountain, wheVe 
we spend a week in the seminary, attending a most 
admirable examination of the girls, visiting among 
the residents, and purposing, D. V., to ascend to the 
great crater Haleakala." 

TO PRESIDENT J. MOOEE. 

"We, with nine others spent a night on 
the summit of Haleakala. The day was warm — 
mercury at 70° — the night stinging cold, mercury at 
30°. The sky was clear, the stars brilliant, and the 
great vault above glorious. The scenery around 
was grand and magnificent. As the sun went low 
in the wesi, the fleecy clouds, moving up from the 
sea, came like heaven's light cohorts, gathering 
around the bases of the mountains, spreading like 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 145 

eider-down over the isthmus which divides East and 
West Maui, resting on hill and dale, hamlet and 
plantation, and reposing like a soft gossamer mantle 
on all objects below us. In this fleecy sea of 
exquisite beauty, the great orb of heaven dipped 
and bathed, shedding forth such a flood of golden 
glory — such flashing rays, such brilliants, such 
sparkling tints of beauty as I had never seen sur- 
passed. In the morning this inimitable picture was 
repeated on the other side of the island, with ravish- 
ing beauty. The sun rose from the ocean depths, 
pierced the white canopy of drapery, shook his 
golden locks, and sent out such flashes of quivering 
radiance as to dazzle mortal vision, and to awaken 
unutterable admiration, calling for the adoration of 
devout souls, and lifting the spirit to those higher 
realms of glory where the 'Sun of Righteousness' 
forever shines, and where life and immortality reign 
without night, or sorrow, or end. We descended 
from the mount, like Moses, feeling that we had 
been dazzled by the glory of God. " 

TO REV. H. BINGHAM. 

August 30, 1875. — "My L. is telling you how 
our anxious hearts melted as we read the tale of 
your trials, from the pen of dear Clara. How we 
longed for the wings of a dove and the guidance of 
an angel over the pathless waste of waters to your 
pilgrim home in Samoa. But we read the letters 
and the curtain dropped. The scene closed sud- 
denly and communication ceased. We are now left 
to conjecture, to hope and fear, to doubt and trust, 



T46 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

to longing and waiting, to the exercise of patience, 
supplication and faith. Precious ones, how the 
broad ocean surface shimmers in the sunlight, and 
during the long night-watches rolls its dark and 
voiceless waves between us, so that all terrestrial 
communication is cut off, and we can only send our 
sympathies, our desires, our prayers along celestial 
nerves over the *sea of glass' and up to the heavenly 
hills. Our hope in God is strong that he will ere 
long bring you to these shores, to our arms and our 
longing hearts. With this comforting hope, and 
with the full assurance that you are in the hands and 
under the special care of an all-wise and faithful 
Friend, we can ever say 'the will of the Lord be 
done.' " 

TO HIS WIFE (during a tour through Puna). 

Puula, September 13, 1875. . . . **I had a 
cheerful ride through woods and open spaces. 
There was no rain to disturb us, but a great screen 
of clouds all the way. I was weary of the saddle, 
and could hardly walk or stand when I dismounted. 
The pain in the hip joint was keen and piercing, but 
rest and lomiing have abated it. I am in a native 
house writing by a dim taper, but more or less light 
makes little difference with my pen, and whether it 
be gold or steel or goose-quill, the penmanship is 
much the same, rough and illegible. I had many 
musings on horseback which I longed to pen, but 
thoughts are so fugitive, I may not catch the same 
again; no matter, they were better to me than to any 
one else, perhaps, as one's own children are usually 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 147 

the sweetest under the sun. I had some sober and 
tender thoughts of the past. I thought of my first 
tour over these rocks and through the jungle where 
no horse then traveled. I thought of the thousands of 
naked people I met everywhere, and of the thou- 
sands of gospel messages brought to them. I 
thought of the field over which I had fought for forty 
years for Jesus, with great wrestlings, strong 
cryings, and many tears, and of the many spoils 
given me by the great Captain of Salvation. " 

Kalapana, September 14. — "We left Puula this 
morning, and in alternate showers and lulls we 
reached Opihikao, where we rested and dined; then 
rode in a driving rain for most of the way till four. 
Reached this place weary and wet. In crossing the 
arm of the sea to enter Kalapana, the horses went 
deep, and I took in a little brine, but I am now 
sheltered and comfortable. The house is as neat as 
ever was bandbox, and Timothy and his good wife 
are at my service. I am weary but thankful and 
happy. The surf drives in foaming fury upon the 
shore, dashes up fifty to seventy feet into the air 
while the spray drifts inland for half a mile. " 

September \^. . : . "The journey with all its 
jostle and jar has done me good. So bitter herbs 
act as tonics. All things have their compensations. 
How precious is undying memory to the faithful and 
the true, and how graphically it pictures the image 
of loved objects. The long and the near past rush 
into my soul with inexpressible power. I go now 



148 Memo7'ial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

to the blessed Master's work, with a thankful heart 
and a song of praise." 

September' 16. — "Work presses, for we are now in 
the thickest of it. But, O ! the weather. The winds 
screeched and raved last night, and all day to-day 
the storm-god has screamed and howled upon his 
windy car, and now the thunder rolls in grand 
chorus. This has been and still is one of the 
severest days I have experienced at the Islands. 
Kalapana is all afloat; 'water, water everywhere, 
and not a drop' — but a flood — *to drink.' I cannot 
go to or from the church without a foot and leg 
bath. But our work goes on fast and well in spite 
of the roar of ocean and the moan of winds. " 

September 17. — "We have had a good day and 
trust the Divine Helper has been with us. We heard 
that Mrs. A. intended to be here to-morrow, but 
she must fail, on account of the weather. " 

September 18. — *T had not thought that six days 
would pass without a line from home — I had hoped 
some carrier pigeon had come in upon us ere this. 
The time seems long, long. But I must drop the 
pen and away to the Master's work. 

''5:30 P. M. — A surprise! a leap! a heart shout! 
While sitting in association at noon, word came that 
Mrs. A. had arrived — and next a bundle of letters. '^ 

September 19. — "Shall I jot again, when after one 
night more, I hope, through the mercy of God, to 
turn my face homeward? Our work here of four 
and a half days is ended. This is the great day of 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. 149 

the feast. The church was crowded. Brother 
Pogue preached in the morning, and was earnest, as 
you know he can be. We have had a splendid day. 
Have installed Kamelamela, and commemorated the 
Lord's death. " 

Puula, September 20. . . . "I rose at day- 
light and our association scattered from 7:30 to 8 
A. M. We have held three meetings during the 
day. All nature shines in the light of heaven. The 
air is balmy and pure, just pure enough and just 
vitalizing enough to send the oxygenated blood in 
sparkling currents through all the channels of the 
animal frame, and by a mysterious and gracious 
sympathy, to touch and cheer and vivify the soul. 
The landscape is lovely. Trees, shrubs and grasses 
of every shade of green, little lakes among the hills 
and ravines, conical craters robed in vegetation, 
lofty mountains in the distance, and the wide Pacific 
glittering with millions of brilliants, one mile away, 
make a scene of enchanting lovelipess. My heart 
rejoices in Him who has clothed these heavens with 
such glory, and adorned the earth with such beauty. " 

TO REV. L. SMITH, D. D. 

October 20, 1875. . . . "Wife and I have 
been through Hilo and have returned. The 
weather has been glorious excepting the heat, which 
is hot. Not so hot, however, as to set the forests 
on fire, as an old geographer of my boyhood once 
taught us. The streams were very low and some of 
them were as dry as Cromwell's powder. Our 
people in the rural districts are few, and it is sad to 



150 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

see so many once populous places now desolate. 
From Hakalau to Laupahoehoe, a distance of fifteen 
miles, not one school remains. Once there were 
seven on this track, with a numerous population. 
In the single district of Hilo no less than thirty-two 
schools have been blotted out, while only six remain. 
In Puna out of thirty-three schools, eight only 
remain, and these are several of them as expiring 
tapers. The thousands of scholars have become 
hunxdreds, and the hundreds tens. Our rural popu- 
lation is fast disappearing before the besom of time, 
and our fair and broad fields wave their luxuriant 
grasses in silence and solitude. In many and many 
a place where once I heard the shout of the multi- 
tude, and was jubilant at the merry gambols of boys 
and girls, and where I met an eagel* congregation of 
five hundred to a thousand hearers, I now see no 
human habitation and hear no voice of man. Except 
the solitary note of a bird or the chirp of an insect, 
all is silent, with no presence and no voice but the 
voice and presence of God. And thus it is all over 
the Islands. The country is being drained to fill up 
a few seaports and to work a few plantations where 
the mower and the reaper gather in the harvest of 
death, and the grinder breaks the bones of its victims. 
"Well, all life is i^i God. He that gave life can 
restore it. Houses and villages will yet be sprinkled 
over the land; these desolate fields will yet rejoice 
under the hand of the tiller; our streams will sing 
and laugh in channels of industry; churches and 
schools shall bless a future generation. Our streets 
and lawns shall be full of 'boys and girls playing/ 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 151 

and heaven will look down with smiles upon a 
redeemed land, upon a lost ocean gem restored and 
shining in the sight of God. 

" 'Though seed he buried long ui dust 
It shan't deceive our hope.' " 

TO HIS WIFE. (Absent in Honolulu.) 

December '^^ 1875. — "You steamed out of the bay 
splendidly at four P. M. I gazed at the vessel which 
bore away the dearest earthly treasure of my heart, 
till she was far off from her anchorage and yet close 
to the moss-mantled and fern-fringed shore. I then 
walked meditatively to the empty tabernacle. All 
was now solitude where so late the voice of love, of 
prayer, of intelligent conversation and of Christian 
communion was heard. ... I believe in God, 
in his presence, his wisdom, power and love; and I 
believe that he manifests his love and goodness not 
by encouraging hermits and anchorites and self- 
inflicted penances, but in granting us food and 
raiment and shelter and the sweet joys of domestic 
life. He is a personal friend and not an infinite and 
incomprehensible abstraction. He meets our wants 
not with empty air and intangible promises but with 
just the supplies we need. And if we truly wait on 
him in full submission to his will, he will lead us in 
the right way. How can infinite wisdom, faithful- 
ness and power fail to do this? I trust I hold all 
love and all friends in subordination to God, and 
with this belief I could give up all for Jesus. " 

December 5- — "I entered the church with the 
Sabbath School at nine, and did not go out of it 



152 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

until twenty minutes to three; was held one hour 
and a half on the question of giving up my afternoon 
service; the lazy flocks urging it, and all the older 
and more substantial holding on. Not decided yet. 
At four I rode to Kalepolepo and had a pleasant 
meeting, returning about sunset. " 

December 7. — "How I count days, and often wish 
their flight to be swift when the heart longs for a 
coming joy. Is not this unwise? I do look forward 
to the time — but I will not say with Hempsted, 

" 'It saddens me to think the long, long night 
Draws surely on, to shroud and stifle all 

That I have ever seen of fair and bright; 

That I shall miss the glance of birds, the call 

Of waters from the glen, and all the light 
Which the great sun from his full urn lets fall. ' 

"No, no, nothing will be lost, nothing wanting. 
When our last night shall have come, and the sweet 
resurrection morn shall open in glory upon our 
ravished eyes, shall we not be satisfied to awake in 
his likeness? In spite of all my sins and fears, this 
hope grows brighter and this faith stronger as I 
approach the shores of embarkation for the 'better 
country,' Ah, darling, earth is full of charms as 
also of sins and sorrows. To me its beauties are 
often ravishing. All along the track of life I have 
trodden, I see sparkling gems; and even roughnesses 
and pains and dark glades once passed now hold a 
wild enchantment in my soul. But it is huma7iity I 
have loved. And as 'friend after friend departs' my 
soul clings to sweet yet mournful memories which 
will not die. But thanks be to God for the exceed- 
ing great and precious promises, and for the glorious 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 153 

hopes of the future which cheer us in view of those 
separations which must come upon all that is earth 
born. God cares for us when he upbraids us for our 
little faith. We will lean hard upon Him and try 
the antidote for perturbation and fear. 'Earth has 
no sorrow which heaven cannot heal.' " 

December 9. . . . "Did you read Moody's 
remark about the human heart, as, 'Who would stand 
to have his heart photographed?' I am more afraid 
of my own heart than of all other foes, and my daily 
prayer is, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God.' 
My whole character and life seem so full of faults 
and sins that it often seems to me I cannot find a 
place in heaven. But I will hope in God, and live 
and die at my Savior's feet confessing and pleading. 
Jesus hears prayer. He is a tender and true Shep- 
herd. As the angel touched the trembling and 
mourning Daniel and said, 'Be strong, yea be strong, 
so Jesus speaks to my heart and I respond, 'Let my 
Lord speak, for thou hast comforted me.' " 

December 12. — "A good congregation to-day. I 
am having labor in the church, and I want the help 
of the 'other Comforter,' the one promised to abide 
always with God's people,. Don't be over anxious, 
love, lest I work too hard. My health is good and 
work supports it. I should die of rust had I nothing 
to do. I desire, if the Lord will, to work up to the 
grave and then rest. I should lose my life were I 
too anxious to save it. " 

December 24. — "The sun set in glory to-night. 
Pink and purple banners flashed around him as he 



154 Meuiorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

descended behind the snow-crowned mountain, and 
rose and dipped and waved above, as his burning 
disk disappeared below the flaming horizon. Christ- 
mas trees are growing in many houses in Hilo, 
loaded with fruits. I have distributed a few trifles 
among some of the widows and fatherless. It is 
Christmas eve, and I wait for the angelic song, the 
rapturous burst, the shout of the heavenly hosts, for 
shining light, for the proclamation of peace, the 
assurance of good will. May all come to your heart 
and mine, to your friends and mine. May it come 
to all peoples, and the dear Redeemer's 'harvest 
home ' be soon shouted among all the nations, and 
his glorious banner be waved around the world. 
I have a daily almanac — and it makes no 
mistakes. It lets it rain when it rains, and shine 
when it shines, and it lets the wind blow hot and 
blow cold and 'box the compass.' It also lets the 
tides rise and fall, and the rivers run on their busi- 
ness, but it tells me the day of the week, the day of 
the month, how many days since the cruel steamer 
bore off my Better Life, and how many more before 
she will restore her to my longing heart. These 
passing days will come and go, and we shall go and 
come for a little season, until our ever-living Savior 
shall call us to our eternal home. The year wanes 
fast and soon its adieu will be final. 

'Well, if our days must fly 

Well keep their end in sight; 
Well spend them all in wisdom's ways 

And let them speed their flight. ' 

"Let us go gladly on, hand in hand, in the path 
of duty, and with heart beating with heart prove 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Comi. 155 

that 'the ways of wisdom are pleasantness and all 
her paths are peace.' Has eternity the measure 
of time? Are there years in the land where there is 
no night? Do the glorified mark the sweep of 
cycles? By what indicator do spirits measure the 
roll of ages? Where is the echo that comes back 
from those mysterious realms to answer our ques- 
tions? All is silence in that unknown land, silence 
so deep and profound as to oppress the heart of the 
anxious inquirer. The great orbs of heaven roll on 
through floods of silver light and seas of golden 
glory, but they utter no articulate voice. Well, all 
is right. God has planted a telescope on earth 
whose celestial power pierces the clouds and pene- 
trates to the great central sun around which all the 
mighty wheels of creation move. This telescope is 
the Bible; and if we are not guided and satisfied by 
this light we must grope in darkness." 

TO REV. AND MRS. H. BINGHAM. 

May II, 1876. — "Dear sister C.'s very welcome 
message addressed to the 'Twain in one,' looks us 
full in the face and calls for an answer. And yet, in 
kind and modest indulgence it excuses us from 
writing, because we may be pressed with work. 
Now, if you Twain in one should look in upon us 
in the sweet Bower of peace and love, we would not 
only open our doors, or arms and hearts to welcome 
you joyfully, but we would lay aside pen and broom, 
needle and book, and sit right down to a feast of 
love and talk, of social joy, with thanksgiving to the 
adorable Author of our being and all our blessings. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



So I now stop all other wheels of industry and sit 
down for a pen and ink chat with you. I can better 
afford to do it, than not to do it, for it pays. To 
my social and spiritual nature, it is a relaxation 
which lubricates the rough friction of care, and helps 
to cheer and strengthen the soul for the many toils 
and conflicts of life. It is a condiment for some of 
the more severe, not to say bitter, experiences of our 
mortal state. I am anticipating a delightful meeting 
with both of you and with the sweet child. I have 
not seen him in his little baby form, but hope to 
meet him before he is as tall as I am, or as heavy, 
for I want to lift him up to my bosom and my lips 
and carry him in my arms. Tell him before I come, 
that I love children and don't hurt them. My 
choicest benediction on the babe. " 

TO RET. DR. SMITH. 

July 10, 1876. — ''The great spiritual wave that 
now sweeps over some portion of the United States 
gathers its hundreds of thousands into the church. 
Does it gather an equal number of dollars into our 
missionary treasuries? When we hear of the con- 
quests of the gospel of a thousand born in a day, 
we are not deeply moved, but let the trumpet sound 
the final passage of ' The Treaty"^ and the rising 
prospects of the planters, of sugar, or business at the 
Islands; flags run up and flutter, bells ring, pOAvder 
takes fire, men shake hands, embrace, congratulate, 
drink healths (?), and shout hosanna to the coming 
dollar. " 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 157' 

TO HIS SON. 

March 23, 1877. — "The present grasping for 
wealth on these islands is great beyond anything we 
have hitherto seen. There will be many sad failures 
in the end. Kau is troubled with drouth and with 
subterranean dynamics. Wealth may come, or dis- 
appointment and disaster. I would rather have you 
possess Godliness, with contentment, than all the 
winged wealth of the world. 

"We have had a great wind storm on the Kona. 
side of the island, which carried off tons of yellow 
dust from Mauna Kea, in a stream miles wide, and 
extending over the sea farther than the eye could 
trace it- This continued for two days. Of course, 
the steamer could not leave port and live. On the 
14th ult. a gorgeous eruption broke out on Mauna. 
Loa, flooding the heavens with lurid light, and call- 
ing out all Hawaii and Maui to gaze at the splendid 
illumination. We have rarely witnessed a grander 
spectacle of Plutonic pyrotechnics; but from that 
night to the present day we have seen no more of 
it. 

TO MISS E. BINGHAM. 

April 2, 1877. . . . "If we endure unto the 
end, then Life, not death, is near. But our great 
difficulty is to keep the eye and the heart fixed 
steadily on Jesus. Peter on the restless wave became 
dizzy and began to sink. So we get jostled and 
giddy, even on * The Rock,' and are just ready to 
jump into the sea. A little child was once so 
frightened because of a slight quivering of a raft of 



158 Memo7'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

rushes, where she was perfectly safe, that she leaped 
into deep water in the river, and would have 
perished had not her father been near to plunge into 
the ^^'ater and save her at the last moment. Thus 
we are often near ' sinking in deep waters ' when 
the strong arm and the deathless love of our heavenly 
Father saves us. It is steady, stayed, unshaken 
trust that keeps the soul in peace. David found it, 
after great and terrible tossings, and when found he 
said, ' My soul is even as a weaned child.' 
How fast the months and years roll on, and how 
rapidly the river sweeps away our race, our neigh- 
bors and friends on every side. Is it not a com- 
fort to know that when we drop our work the 
Eternal God will employ others to carry it on? 
Kings and princes die, but nations live. Pastors 
and teachers leave all and go at the call of Heaven, 
but the Church shall remain forever, like Mt. Zion, 
and knowledge shall increase and run parallel with 
eternal ages." 

TO HIS SON. 

May 22, 1877. . . . ** On the lOth inst. a 
great tidal wave swept our shores, destroying build- 
ings along the beach, removing Waiakea bridge, 
wharf, and warehouse, and destroying the buildings 
along the banks of the Wailoa, laying that pretty 
and thriving suburb of Hilo in utter ruin. Trees 
are torn up by the roots, and the debris of .walls, 
gardens, bridge, abutments and all, is scattered in 
wild confusion over scores of acres. The wave was 
twelve to fourteen feet high, and the oscillations of 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 159 

the sea continued for three days. Five persons 
were drowned, many more bruised and maimed. 
The picture of loss and of suffering is sad. Bitter 
experience teaches what men are slow to beheve, 
not to build houses on the sand nor to lay up 
treasures where destroyers are abroad. 

TO REV. GEO. W. OOAN.'^ 

September 4, 1877. — "With ' our beloved brother 
Paul,' I must say to my nephew, George Whitefield, 
* my dearly beloved and longed for ' — On reading 
your graphic letter of August 3d, received a few 
days ago, one great thought fastens upon me, viz., 
that you may come to Hilo. How my heart leaped 
at the idea. When I first heard that you were 
appointed a missionary to the East a momentary 
sadness came over me, but I now rejoice, for I 
believe the Lord sent you to Persia, whereas the 
love of kin would have called you to Hawaii. But 
the hope that we may yet meet before we ' put off 
this tabernacle ' of clay is cheering. . . . Your 
mission was a grand one, and while it often wearied 
you, it yet afforded joy. It was a gracious Provi- 
dence that brought you safely back to quiet Niles 
before the fall of the fiery avalanche of railroad 
strikes and riots, and robbery and blood. That 
was like the fall of that bitter and baleful * star 
called wormwood.' You speak right when you say 
' it seemed like a hell upon earth in many places. 

* Mr. Coan's correspondence with this beloved nephew began 
in his earliest years, but letters previous to this date were lost 
through accident on the removal of G. W. C.'s family from one 
home to another. 



i6o yiemorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

It seems to me that it would be sufficient torment to 
dwell among men wholly given up to unbridled 
passions and lusts.' Yes ; and such a state of 
things, if it were made eternal, would be as the 
worm that dieth not. To us at this distance, and 
standing upon our w^atch-tower, it looked like the 
opening of the bottomless pit and the rising of a 
smoke out of the pit, filling all hearts with conster- 
nation and horror. And there came out of the 
smoke locusts upon the earth with scorpion power, 
and their king was the angel whose name is 
Apollyon. I believe that prophecy, as well as 
history, repeats itself I believe also that retribu- 
tion will sooner or later follow the parties w^ho pro- 
voked and the demons who executed these infernal 
riots. Your remarks on the war in the East are 
full of interest. The Mohammedan religion is bitter 
as wormwood and cruel as the scorpion, and the 
Lord will destroy it. Whether he will use the tooth 
and claw of the Northern Bear to do this is un- 
certain to me. It is not by muscular might nor by 
Northern steel that sin can be put down and the 
blood of martyrs avenged, but it is true that the 
Eternal God can and does ' make the wrath of man 
to praise him.' Assyria was his 'rod,' his sword, 
and his ' battle-ax,' but the proud Assyrian did 
not mean it, nor did his heart think it. So we will 
wait on the Lord and see what he will do with the 
Russ and the Turk. Meanwhile he calls upon his 
people to enter into their chambers and to shut their 
doors about them. It is our joy, while the waves 
of war roar and rage, to know^ that * we have a strong 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. i6i 

city,' and that our ' God will appoint salvation for 
walls and bulwarks.' We feel for and pray for our 
dear missionary brethren and sisters in the East. 
They are under trials and in perils, but they have 
the assurance that ' in the Lord Jehovah is everlast- 
ing strength.' The fact you relate about the belief 
of the Mussulmans in the East that the next or I2th 
Imaum is Christ, the true prophet, and that he is 
expected to appear soon, is remarkable. It would 
seem that they are ^ feelijtg after God' and truth; 
and the Lord grant that they may soon find the 
Savior. One thought cheers me. I believe that 
nearly every bar and door and wall which once for- 
bade the entrance of the Gospel, has been broken 
down by the fire and hammer of the Lord, so that 
the whole earth now lies at the feet of the Church, 
as Canaan lay at the feet of Israel when the walls 
of Jericho fell and the defenses of those pagan 
nations departed. There will be conflict and in- 
terrupted successes, measured by the strength or 
weakness of faith, but the watchword will be 
* Onward r and the inoine^itum will be moral pro- 
gression. Shall we look down from the peaceful 
hills of heaven and see the whole earth one bright 
realm of peace and love, with * no more sea ?' " 

TO REV. a. W. COAN. 

February II, i^jZ. . . . "Your labors in the 
United States have been abundant and I rejoice that 
the Lord has so graciously blessed them. I think 
that a season of rest in our quiet home, with the 
breathing of our balmy air would greatly refresh 



1 62 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 

you, and you would receive as warm a welcome as 
ever greeted you on earth. But the picture you 
would see would, in all respects, differ greatly from 
all that you have read or conceived of our Islands. 
Instead of the multitudes of Hawaiians of whom you 
have read, you would find many foreigners of very 
many nationalities and thousands of Chinamen 
spread over the country, and sugar plantations 
springing up wherever there is room and water, with 
the crushing of mills, the roaring of furnaces, and 
the darkening smoke of a multitude of chimneys. 
The rush now is for pelf, and every one seeks gain 
from his own quarter. Meditation, prayer and 
sober attention to the interests of the soul are of 
little or no importance in the eyes of the multitude. 
The labors of a faithful embassador of Christ were 
never more arduous and responsible than now. 
Heathenism is being rolled back upon us like a flood, 
and no one can predict what will be the moral and 
spiritual condition of this nation ten years hence. 
Our hope, our trust are in God alone, and so we 
keep on the armor and fight on until, called from 
this to a higher field." 

TO JOEL AND HANNAH BEAN. 

Octobei' g, i^j'^. . . . "Evenings of precious 
conversation on the things pertaining to the kingdom 
of God on earth, and on the coming revelations of 
glory in heaven, are as the soul's viaticum on its 
journey upward. . . .' How glad I am for the 
grace which is given to your brother and sister Miles, 
to spend their strength in efforts to bless the much 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 163 

abused Indians. O when will Christian sympathy 
and devotion overcome the obstacles in the way of 
imparting a real Christian civilization to the aborig- 
ines of our country, and the grace of God redress 
their wrongs? Were I young again and free from my 
duties to the Polynesian race, how gladly would I 
devote all my powers to the Indian tribes, or to the 
emancipated, yet enthralled, negroes. And when 
I look in at the great and effectual doors opened in 
Africa, India, Turkey, China and Japan, my heart 
yearns to go forth again to the heathen, and, if it 
might be, to spend another life in laboring to win 
them to the love of Christ. Have you read Stanley's 
'Through the Dark Continent?' It is painfully 
interesting because of the struggles where carnal 
weapons were used and much blood was shed. But 
whatever may have been the agencies used to force 
a way through those savage tribes, one thing is 
clear, God has opened a wide door into the heart of 
that long neglected continent, and that door will 
never be again closed until the blessed Gospel of 
Jesus shall have penetrated to every part of that 
fearful land, and lifted the pall of death from all its 
hills and valleys and plains. The wrath, the 
cupidity, the curiosity and the ten thousand schemes 
of sinful men will be over-ruled in the end to accom- 
plish God's redeeming purposes in the earth." 

TO REV. G. W. COAN. 

October 23, 1878. — "Your remarks on the lack of 
information and of interest on the subject of missions 
found in many parts of the country, and on the 



164 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

demoralized state of many churches are painfully 
true, I saw and felt it when in the States in 1870. 
While I rejoice in every effort to 'Reform the Civil 
Service' and to cleanse the Augean stable of politics, 
I would rejoice still more if the work of reformation 
might begin at the sanctuary which should be * the 
pillar and ground of truth,' and thence work outward 
till the body politic, or the whole community should 
feel the cleansing power. How greatly all professed 
ministers of the pure Gospel should heed the solemn 
charge, 'Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the 
Lord.' How sad to see ministers giving themselves 
up to foolish fashions, to idle speculations in doctrine, 
to sceptical views of the Bible, to loose and false 
views of life and duty, to fleshly indulgences and 
doubtful recreations, while their hearers are trained 
to fastidious tastes, to critical and captious nervous- 
ness on the matter, the manner and the length of 
religious services, scorning the devout and humble 
servant of the Lord, and flattering with gifts and 
garlands him who has not known that there is a 
Holy Ghost, or that the word of God is the 'Sword 
of the Spirit, sharper than any two edged sword.* 
The Lord spare your dear Fred and Frank 
to go through college, gathering strength as they 
pass from stage to stage, and coming out not so 
much with University honors, as with the honor that 
Cometh from God. I see that you are dubbed D. D. 
Bear your honors meekly and see that you are not 
hurt by them. " 



Metnorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 165 

TO REV. L. SMITH, D. D. 

December 11, 1878. — "What a difference there is 
in men, and with what different eyes they see things! 
A landscape often looks smooth and lovely in the 
distance, but is rough and unsightly underfoot. To 
look at MaunaLoa from my window, it is as smooth 
as a cannon-ball; but on near approach it is frightful 
to walk over. How soft the light and uniform the 
surface of the moon until the telescope draws her 
within fifty miles of us, when we are amazed at her 
frowning precipices, her yawning fissures, her horrid 
pit craters and her untraversable fields of scoria. 
So it is to some eyes with missions. They glow 
and sparkle with beauty in the distance as if sur- 
rounded with a halo of golden glory, but when 
examined as places of toil, of friction, of weariness, 
and often as scenes disgusting to human senses, they 
become objects of disgust and of disappointment to 
many. " 

TO EEV. G. W. COAN. 

November 11, 1879. ... "I long to hear of 
your preaching again, but not to such excess and 
such exhaustion of physical and brain power as 
aforetime. This severe lesson of weakness and 
wasting will, I trust, lead you to be more careful 
should you once more be permitted to go out into 
the field to scatter the seeds of the kingdom or to 
thrust in the sickle into the waving harvest. How 
I wished to see your name on the glorious roll of the 
elders and saints in the Assembly at Syracuse. We 
have just read the report of the seventieth meeting 



1 66 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

of the A. B. C. F. M. What prayer, what spiritual 
logic, what wise counsel, what unity, hope and faith, 
what love, zeal and eloquence, what resolutions, 
what new consecrations were developed in that 
assembly, during those days of saintly communings. 
If my voice could be heard all over that broad 
domain, the United States, I would say, let the full 
report of that annual meeting be printed in sufficient 
numbers and sent to every Congregational pastor 
and church, and to all ministers, editors and churches 
of other Christian denominations throughout the 
land. What Christians need is light on the great 
mission of the church on earth, i. e. , what they are 
called to do; and also heat, such only as comes from 
the fire which burns forever on the altar of God, to 
move and melt and purify the hearts of the redeemed 
and furnish a spiritual motor that shall move and 
renovate the world. How I long to see that great 
organization, the Presbyterian church, moved like a 
forest in a mighty wind till not a leaf remained 
untouched. The latent power of the church is 
dormant; let it once be aroused and wisely directed, 
and such miracles of grace as the world never saw 
would be soon witnessed. What a trumpet call 
sounded out from the burning lips of Isaiah more 
than twenty-five centuries ago! 'Awake, awake, 
put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful 
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.' The world 
will yet see greater things than science, civilization, 
sages, seers and angels have ever seen." 



Memorial of Rev. Titiis Coan, 167 

TO KEV. J. D. PARIS. 

Hoiiohthty June 17, 1880. — "Your excellent letter 
lies before me. I answer from the dust and heat of 
the metropolis. Glad if my little savage waif 
('Adventures in Patagonia') found favor in your eyes. 
Your letter reminds me of the days of Auld Lang 
Syne, when we walked and talked, when we sang 
and prayed, and when we rejoiced and wept together. 
Well, we are nearer the shore of Time than in our 
youthful days. Nearer than when we struggled and 
panted together for the first time up the rugged 
steeps of Mauna Loa; nearer than when in our 
nightly descent we stumbled and fell, often, amidst 
the scoriatic ridges and into the jagged valleys of 
the mountain, and when we felt in our utter exhaus- 
tion that there was but a step between us and death. 
Yes, we are now fast nearing the shore of Time, and 
looking off upon the boundless, the fathomless, the 
shoreless ocean of Eternity. But we do not shudder, 
for our Pilot, 'who is our life,' is with us." 



1 68 Memo?Hal of Rev. Titus Coan. 



XII. 

"A little longer yet — a little longer, 
Life shall be thine; life with its power to will; 

Life with its strength to bear, to love, to conquer, 
Bringing its thousand joys thy heart to fill. 

A little longer, and thy heart, beloved, 

Shall beat forever with a love divine; 
And joy so pure, so mighty, so eternal, 

No creature knows and lives, will then be thine." 

— Adelaide Proctor. 

To the many guests who through the passing 
years had been entertained with cordial hospitality 
at the Emerald Bower, Mr. Coan had sometimes 
related his experiences as a missionary explorer in 
the wilds of Patagonia. The story, as it fell from his 
lips, was full of interest, and the listeners often 
asked why he did not publish it. 

While he had strength for touring he never felt 
that he had time to write a book, but when, by rea- 
son of advancing age, he was not able to go as often 
as aforetime to the outskirts of his parish, hethought 
he might, perhaps, be doing good by responding to 
the wish of those who desired ""to see the simple 
narrative in print." 

It was thus that he came, in 1879, to prepare his 
first volume, ''Adventures in Patagonia." To very 
few of his correspondents and to almost none of his 
island neighbors, did he speak of this work while 
engaged upon it. 

The favor with which it was received by his friends, 
and their solicitations that he should also give a 
sketch of his life, in its earlier and later periods, led 
him, after much hesitation, to write his autobi- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 169 

ography. This was in 1881 when he had reached 
his eighty-first year. At this time his form was still 
erect, his step alert, and his characteristic ardor in 
work was unabated. Seldom lying down during his 
active day of sixteen or seventeen waking hours, he 
carried forward the manuscript of "Life in Hawaii," 
kept up his correspondence, and met the daily duties 
of his position with his habitual cheerfulness and 
patience. 

For seven months of this year he watched with 
others, sharing in their anxiety, that threatening lava 
flow from Mauna Loa, which, beginning on the 5th 
of November, 1880, continued until the lOth of 
August, 1 88 1, without any abatement of action. 

The letters of this period will show with what feel- 
ings the pilgrim of fourscore years looked back 
upon the past, and in what unshaken trust he still 
went forward to the future. 

TO EEV. H. HALSEY. 

January 3, 1881. — ** Time flows on. I had feared 
that it had stamped your name upon the marble and 
taken the pen from your hand, but here before me 
is the evidence that your active limbs, your reason- 
ing brain, and throbbing heart were still in motion. 
And I do thank you, my long loved and faithful 
brother, for your late epistle, as I do for all you 
have sent me. Your letters are laden with the 
aroma of ripe fruit. How I remember our journey 
together on the Erie Canal (in 1839), our visit in 
Onondaga, my own ague and fever at that time, our 
parting in New York, you for Philadelphia, I for 
Connecticut; my long sickness there; the reflections 
it produced, resulting in study for the ministry and 
the entire change of my after life. I will bless the 



lyo Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

Lord if any of my weak efforts to serve the cause of 
truth and peace and love have been of any use. 
Could I have another life to p;ive to the g-reat work 
committed to the disciples by the Supreme Master, 
how gladly would I go at the trumpet call to 
benighted and bleeding Africa. But your feet and 
mine begin to dip in the waters of Jordan. These 
waters are not dark and cold to the believer, nor 
does Faith stand shivering on the brink of that 
narrow stream which divides the heavenly land from 
ours, for it sees the 'sweet fields beyond.' More 
than a score of venerable and distinguished men 
whom I met in the United States in 1870-71 have 
passed over the river since my return. At this I 
ought to rejoice for their sakes, and yet the thought 
that they are to act no more on the theater of time 
sometimes saddens me. When the beloved Barnes, 
Drs. Anderson, Wisner, Treat, Buddington, Adams, 
Condit and many others passed over the line of 
mortal life, I felt the repeated shocks like an earth- 
quake wave rolling over the wide Pacific. * Thus 
star by star declines,' but only to rise higher and 
shine brighter in the heavenly firmament. 
Just two months ago a grand burst of our mountain 
volcano commenced, about 12,500 feet above sea 
level, and this crater is still in blast. This awful foun- 
tain shot up columns of liquid fire, and poured out 
rivers of seething fusion, throwing up a blazonry of 
ruddy light upon the overhanging canopy of clouds. 
One fiery river rushed madly down the northeast slope 
of the mountain for thirty miles, and another stream 
ran off to the southeast about the same distance. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 171 

At length these streams stiffened and ceased to 
flow, when others, at about equal distances from the 
termini of these spread wings, rushed down the 
mountain in a direct line for Hilo, and their flows 
are now about twelve miles distant. Like a great 
red dragon, it flashes its burning eyes upon us. 
Will it come to Hilo?" 



TO HIS CHILDREN. 

Febritary i, 1881. — "This is a joyful day. The 
heavens shine with glory. The earth glows with 
beauty. The sea sparkles with brilliants. The 
radiant orbs sing praises. The bland zephyrs mur- 
mur sweetly. The rippling rills leap and laugh. 
The emerald fields rejoice. Silvery notes of praise 
rise from glen and forest, and mingling strains of 
harmony and love ascend to the Creator from all 
his works. 

" ' Let man by nobler passions swayed, 
The feeling lie*art, the judging head, 
In higher praise employ.' 

"I am this day four score years old. God gave 
me a happy childhood, a cheerful youth, a vigorous 
manhood, and now a calm old age. My health is 
/good, my spirits buoyant, and my heart is happy in 
the companion of my choice. My faith is firm, my 
hope anchored, and my love for you all is deathless 
as the soul. My experiences have been varied, and 
I look back upon my life as marked with many mis- 
takes, numerous sins, and much unworthiness. But 
I also adore the grace of God in his pardoning love, 
and humbly trust that the blood of Jesus Christ, his 



172 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

Son, will cleanse me from all sin. I am not 
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power 
of God to the salvation of every true believer. I 
love the law of God, for ' it is perfect ' — perfect in 
holiness, in justice and in love. I love the Bible, 
for it is 'a light to my feet and a lamp to my path.' 
And I now confess, with thanks to my ever-blessed 
Lord and Savior, that I chose the service of Christ 
freely , deliberately and intelligently; and since the 
day when I avouched the Lord Jehovah to be my 
God and Savior, I have never seen the hour or the 
moment when I regretted this act, or wished to 
return to ' the beggarly elements of the world.' 
I have been in perils often; but under all circum- 
stances, and in all climates, the Lord has been a 
kind shepherd and faithful guide and protector. 
And he has enabled me to draw comfort and con- 
tentment from all the vicissitudes of life, and under 
the shadow of Emmanuel's wings I have found more 
joy than sorrow, more pl^sure than pain, more 
hope than fear. And now, as the shadows of life 
are lengthening, and the time of my departure 
cannot be distant, I esteem it a duty and a joy to 
testify, from long experience, to the marvelous 
mercy of the Lord in thus preserving his unworthy 
servant during these eighty years of mortal life. Not 
a bone has been broken, not a joint dislocated, 
while all the powers of nature, physical and intel- 
lectual, have been kindly preserved until the present 
time. 

" ' Strange, that a harp of thousand strings 
Should keep in tune so long.' 



Memorial of Re%K Titus Coan. 173 

"And my heart is still young, and in sweet sympathy 
with all the radiant beauties of nature, and in har- 
mony with the diapason of the illimitable universe. 
'I am not old, I cannot be old,'' for I arp in early 
childhood — in the first dawn of being — and I am 
now studying the alphabet of immortality. Ah! the 
illimitable, the immeasurable, the boundless, the 
INFINITE that spreads around and rises above me, 
without horizon and without zenith. 

"Let me beg of you, my dearly beloved children, 
one and all, live by Faith, live in Love, live for 
others, live for immortality, live for God, and you 
shall never die. This is no fantasy, because Love 
and Truth and God are eternal. 

"Remember the calm, thoughtful, and sweet mother 
of four children. Think of her sere.ne evening, of 
her intelligent faith, of her deathless love, of her 
readiness to depart, of her assurance of being with 
her Divine Savior, of the pluming of her angel 
wings, and of her shining pathway to those realms 
of life, ' Up where eternal ages roll.' 

** Was her faith a fallacy? her life a failure? her 
hope a bursting bubble ? If not, then ponder the 
lesson of her life, and be followers of those who 
through faith and patience inherit the promises." 

TO REV. H. BINGHAM. 

February 10, 1881. — "Your congratulations on 
my birthday are in receipt, and my responsive 
thanks go with this. I esteem it a great mercy to 
be preserved so long in life with so much physical 
vigor as I now enjoy. When I entered upon the 



174 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

ministry I little thought that my life would be 
extended to eighty years, and I had no dream of the 
marvelous developments which the advancement of 
civilization and the progress of evangelical Chris- 
tianity would reveal during my life- time. I look 
back upon the last eight decades with wonder and 
gratitude, and still cling to life in anticipation of 
what a few more years will reveal; and desiring to 
do a little more for our adorable Savior before bid- 
ding a final farewell to our planet. But is it not 
probable that the saints in heaven will be permitted 
to know more of what transpires on earth, than is 
known by the earthly pilgrims? And if the glorified 
in heaven are to be 'satisfied,' will not one element 
of their satisfaction consist in knowing the progress 
of those interests below which so filled their souls 
with earnest interest while toiling in this earthly 
vineyard? Can a redeemed spirit be satisfied in 
heaven, while an impenetrable veil shuts out from 
his vision all that transpires on earth? But we leave 
that with our all gracious Lord. We wait to hear 
about your prospects for a house and a little home 
comfort for your future days on earth, and we trust 
that this question will be well settled in due time. 
We know that the Lord is good and ready to help, 
and that he has the hearts of many of your friends in 
his hands. " 

TO MRS. H. BINGHAM. 

June 8, 1881. — "We are so glad, so happy to 
hear how your little tabernacle is rising with its 
cords and stakes, and we do hope to see you all 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 175 

some day in that Peace Cottage where you will toil 
and rest for a little, until you are called up to your 
mansions 'not made with hands,' and 'not of this 
building.' I love to think of you all as laborers 
together with God, as breakers up of the fallow 
ground, as sowers, reapers, sheaf-binders and as 
shouters of 'the harvest home.' But how odd it 
seems not to be in Honolulu this June. It is all 
well. Honolulu can get along without us, and if we 
were never seen there again, we would not be long 
missed. Mortal life is but a vapor that appears but ' 
a little while and then vanishes away. And yet life 
is real and momentous in its products and results. 
We have been reading the 'Life of Miss Havergal,' 
and it puts me to shame. These blessed women 
who follow Christ and minister to him, become 
teachers of us poor blind clergymen. We don't say 
much about our volcanic fires in these days. They 
burn, but do not burn us. Blessed be the Lord who 
'keepeth Israel.' " 

TO REV. H. HALSEY. 

September 27, 188 1. . . . "Your hint of the 
debt of the American Peace Society touches my 
heart. It ought not to be so. The feeble hold 
which the heaven-born cause of peace seems to have 
on the hearts and purses of Christendom amazes me, 
and I mourn at the little I can do either by pen or 
purse. 'Will a tithe meet the responsibility of 
Christian stewardship?' I think not. That was a 
rule in a dark age of the world. The Gospel is to 
flood the world with light and love, and the Christ 



f 76 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



who is our life claims all his disciples and all they 
have, while he gives himself for us, and says, 'All 
things are yours.' And his rule is to 'give as the 
Lord prospers us;' while he loves the cheerful givei\ 
and promises a hundred fold, even in this present 
life, to all who surrender all to him. What the harm, 
what the loss, if a poor sinner, saved by grace, and 
made heir to a heavenly crown and an eternal king- 
dom, and who now holds, as a steward of God, two 
million dollars, should give one million, or one and 
' a half million to help men on the way to heaven? 
It is a sad mistake if we who have the promise of all 
things should satisfy our love to Christ by a tenth. 
Our fearful volcano was in fierce blast for 
nine months, and the destruction of our beautiful 
town and harbor seemed imminent. Human reason 
and arithmetic both doomed us. The fire rushed 
down the mountain, across the highlands and through 
a mighty forest fifteen to twenty miles wide, and 
appeared within half a mile of our town. Its flaming 
banners waved over us; its burning breath scorched 
us; its offensive odors entered our nostrils; its 
forked tongue darted towards us. We had ob- 
served a day of humiliation and prayer; the nation 
was alarmed — but the eternal God interposed. The 
fiat came forth at the last apparent hour: ' HitJiertOy 
no further.' The burning scourge obeyed its God, 
and we are saved." 

TO REV. JAMES BOYD, D. D. 

December 13, i88t. — "Here is your thrice welcome 
letter of November ist. I echo its first utterance. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 177 

'I wish I could talk with you face to face instead of 
writing to you at a distance of five thousand miles.' 
'Yes,' respond my heart and soul, 'that would be 
joyful,' but with you I am thankful that the privilege 
of communion by letter still remains. 
Your allusion to the arrest of that 'great red dragon' 
shows that you view the deliverance in the same 
light as we do. All of God. As we walk out a 
few rods from our happy Bower, and look upon the 
indurated monster whose blackened corse stretches 
for fifty miles from mountain to main, my soul rises 
to the hills, whence our help cometh, and adores 
that Power and Love which quenched the devouring 
fire and destroyed the destroyer. 

"At the time of Mr. Hallenbeck's visit we did 
have a little noise and shaking among the dry bones 
of Hilo, and there were some cases of quickenings 
and a few hopeful conversions among foreigners. 
But the work was not deep and broad, and some of 
those who wept then, dance now, and some who 
seemed almost persuaded seem farther off than ever. 
But what if some do not believe? God's kingdom 
stands fast , and all who trust in God are as Mount 
Zion. The work among the natives is much as 
usual. The great harvest of former years has been 
gathered, and we are gleaners now, but not without 
some sheaves. We have a little ingathering at all 
our communion seasons, and our monthly contribu- 
tions do not fall below $100. But our battle now is 
sharper and heavier than in the beginning of our 
mission. The world rushes in; the greed of gain is 
intense; and educated skepticism is arrayed against 



1 78 Meinorial of Rev. Titiis Coa7i, 

gospel truth and consecrated living. . . . The 
fall of our chosen Garfield made the earth tremble 
and the heart of the nation groan. The assassination 
was infernal, but the prince of darkness is now 
staggering under the returning blow of his own 
weapon, and the fall of our beloved president is the 
uprising of millions in defense of the right. The 
agonizing prayers of a nation in anguish are being 
answered in a way which no man or angel could 
have devised. God carries the counsels of the fro- 
ward headlong. Did Booth break the Northern 
steel? and can Guiteau scale the battlements of 
heaven or hush its thunders? Heaven bless you, my 
dearly beloved brother, for the thought and the act 
of sending such a Christmas gift to my precious wife 
and me, as the pictures of the exalted and the 
mourning Garfields. What souvenirs could you hav^e 
sent us to excite more gratitude? What memento 
to keep alive more tender and chastened love for the 
departed and the living? We intend to frame the 
pictures and hang them on our parlor walls. " 

TO MR. F. W. DAMON. 

Novemher 17, 1881. — "Your answer to my note 
of welcome [on his return from Europe] is all aglow 
with kindness and courtesy. The fervor and style 
remind me vividly of the warm welcome and cordial 
benediction given me by the eloquent pastor of the 
Cambridgeport church, when we were about to sail 
for the Hawaiian Islands in 1834. You doubtless 
have felt much of the power and persuasive elo- 
quence of this Christian teacher while sitting under 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 179 

his instructions as President of Amherst College. 
We are all glad to read your letter. It was so full 
of enthusiasm, of refined culture and Christian love. 
And now I congratulate you again, and rejoice with 
you in the great work in which you have enlisted. 
To Christianize China, iii China, and out ^ China, is, 
I apprehend, the greatest specific missionary enter- 
prize of the age and of the world. Give your soul 
to it, dear brother, with all its powers and the Lord 
will honor you. When we think of the Mongolian 
race of 500,000,000 as being lifted into a state of 
high civilization, of pure and transparent Christianity, 
our conceptions of the grandeur of the work soar 
to lofty heights, and the thought is clothed with a 
dazzling sublimity; but when we come down to the 
detail, to the dig and tug and pttsh, we feel the 
gravity and the friction of the work, and in our toil 
and sweat we almost lose sight of the magnificent 
theory of the uplifting, the enlightening and Chris- 
tianizing of this vast mass of mundanity. But after 
all, this is the work the great Master puts into our 
hands, and we must down upon our knees, grasp it 
with both hands, earnestly give body and soul to it, 
and with patient toil strive to bring these creatures 
of God's power and of Christ's agonizing love, one 
by one, into the eternal kingdom. But we need 
not fear the detail, for God and all heaven are with 
us and each member of our Lord's body has only 
the work of one to do, and this with the cheering 
promise of Infinite Love, *Lo, I am with you.' So 
then we are to imitate the calm patience of the good 
clock, never to fear, never to fret, never to faint, 



i8o Mevwrial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

and never to count beforehand the amazing number 
of ticks demanded in fifty years; but as the owner 
of the clock winds it, oils it and watches over it, so 
we will trust our Maker and supporter to watch over 
us, and to help us in our work until it is done. " 

TO EEV. DR. BOYD. 

March 3, 1882. — "Love is the true exchange for 
love, and its possessor is always rich. Giving feeds 
and increases it; withholding strangles it. . . . 
Here comes another of your heaven-lit missives 
written the day after my birthday. This fresh token 
of your unabated and unchangeable love is very 
cheering to us both. 

"There are many who are not reached by the 
Gospel unless it is carried to their doors, their haunts 
and their hearts, by warm, earnest and repeated 
personal appeals. This is a new age in Hawaii. 
We have little of that simple, docile and reverent 
element w^hich once pervaded the Hawaiian mind. 
Indifference to things unseen prevails, and the 
victory is not yet won. Complexity of character 
abounds. . . . With more than thirty nationali- 
ties here, with an infinity of opinions and no 
opinions, with education and no education, and with 
an over-mastering earthliness, it requires the furnace 
and the wind of heaven, to melt, amalgamate and 
assimilate these elements into a harmonious Chris- 
tian civilization. But 'with God all things are 
possible' and we are to fight in massed columns, in 
extended lines, or in hand-to-hand struggles, look- 
ing to the Captain of our Salvation for orders and 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. i8i 

success. . . . We see that the assassin of our 
dear Garfield has been sentenced to death. May 
God bring him to repentance. 

''As to the Revised New Testament, I like some 
of it much, and some of it I don't like. But it is an 
improvement that will be improved. I have no 
doubt that it gives the mind of the Spirit more 
clearly, on the whole, than the old version. The 
views of the American Committee are, I think, more 
sensible than those of the English. . . . Our 
rains are abundant; our surf and rivers roar; our soil 
is soaked; our mountains are laden with snow, and 
our air is cold. For nine days I have been sneezing 
and coughing, wrapped in warm garments yet 
shivering. Last Sabbath was my first experience, 
during almost forty-seven years in Hilo, of not being 
able to meet my people in the house of God." 

TO EEV. H. HALSEY. 

May 12, 1882. . . . ''It must have been a 
trial to you not to have attended the meeting of your 
Synod. You have attended many a general assem- 
bly, and there may be but one more to receive you 
on the 'roll-call,' and that will be the greatest, the 
grandest and the most glorious of all, for it will be 
the 'general assembly of the church of the first- 
born whose names are written in heaven.' And 
what an assembly that will be! No jar, no discord, 
no envy, no strife, no 'Demetrius,' no 'copper- 
smith,' no 'accuser of the brethren,' no one to say 
'stand by,"^ no wolf in sheep-skin cloak, no Judas, 
and no one without heaven's credentials, and without 



1 82 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. > 

a \vedding garment. Ah, 'what will it be to be 
there?' and shall such a worthless worm as I stand 
in that vast and spotless assembly? Shall I survey 
those shining ranks? Shall I hear the sweet music 
that rolls over the heavenly hills? Shall I behold 
that Royal Head once crowned for ?/ie with cruel 
thorns, arrayed in majesty, crowned with glory? 
And shall I bow among the throng and add my 
feeble voice to swell the grand Alleluia of 'blessing 
and glory and honor unto God and the Lamb?' I am 
more and more pained by the petty strifes of minis- 
ters and professed followers of the Prince of Peace. 
In heaven all is harmony; not a discordant note in all 
the diatonic scale. What will that general assembly 
do with the polyglottous list of churches of the one 
Christ? When the roll-call is heard, the key-note 
struck and the celestial music begins, which church 
will come to the front? Will the great Roman 
church appear as the mother of churches, the o^i/j' 
pure and holy church? And where will the next 
perfect church, the Episcopal stand? And in what 
line shall we look for the strong and orthodox Pres- 
byterians? Shall we find the Baptists marshaled 
on the banks of 'the River of Life' and their doc- 
trines reflected from that water 'clear as crystal?' 
And where shall we meet that great family, the 
Methodists? Will they not be seen in flying squad- 
rons along all the frontiers of heaven? And how of 
the Congregationalists? Will they stand in the 
great congregation, and blow the trumpet and lift up 
the voice of song? 'And what shall I say more, for 
the time would fail me to to speak' of the quiet and 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 183 

peaceful Friends, and of other divisions, great and 
small, into which the human family is divided in 
their opinions of God, and their modes of worship? 
Should all these reach heaven, what mighty angel 
would be able to marshal and harmonize this disin- 
tegrated and incoherent family? May we not hope 
that all these conflicting elements in Christendom 
will, in due time, be consumed by that fire which 
shall try every man's work, removing the wood, hay 
and stubble, and causing the gold, silver, and 
precious stones to shine out in one faith, one hope, 
and one love?" 



184 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



XIII. 

"They stand, those halls of Zion, 
All jubilant with song, 
And bright with many an angel, 

And all the martyr throng. 
There is the throne of David, 

And there from toil released, 
The shout of them that triumph, 
The song of them that feast." 

— Bernard of Cluny . 

While the inhabitants of Hilo were anxious for the 
safety of their homes exposed to a great volcanic 
eruption, the citizens of Honolulu felt their lives 
imperiled by the scourge of small-pox. 

The strict quarantine established in the spring of 
1 88 1, at the metropolis, for the protection of other 
island ports, was felt to be an obstacle in the way of 
the usual gathering of pastors and delegates at the 
Hawaiian Evangelical Association. And so, for the 
first time in many years, Mr. Coan remained at his 
station during the summer. It was, therefore, with 
peculiar interest that in May of 1882 he made his 
preparations once more to visit Honolulu. 

He had been appointed to preach the annual 
foreign missionary sermon in English, and this in 
accordance with his remarkable habits of promptness 
he prepared weeks before the time to go. Letters 
to be forwarded by the Morning Star to Micronesia, 
he wrote, as long had been his practice, before 
leaving home, giving his words of remembrance and 
cheer both to the American and Hawaiian mission- 
aries in those distant isles. Once more he called the 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 185 

roll of his church, and made up the statistics for the 
yearly reports. 

The voyage to Honolulu was one he greatly 
enjoyed. It was enlivened by the steamer stopping 
to take freight at a northern port of Hawaii, thus 
affording time to go to Kohala, distant twelve miles 
from the sea. His fellow-travelers will not forget 
the enthusiasm with which he enjoyed the novelty 
of his first railway ride over Sandwich Island 
ground. 

At Honolulu the days were crowded full of inci- 
dents and work. In addition to the many meetings 
of the June anniversaries, there were those of a 
revival then in progress in the city. These Mr. 
Coan attended every evening, though the home at 
which he was entertained was two miles from the 
churches. In social relations there was a demand 
on his time and strength. It sometimes involved a 
ride of three or four miles to return a call or accept 
an invitation to a meal. Yet not for weariness 
would he allowhimself to fail in the courtesy of recip- 
rocating these kind attentions of friends. He was 
deeply interested in the improvements and prosperity 
of the city, and took thoughtful notice of political 
affairs, carrying a burden of fears for the future of 
the Kingdom, as he saw wicked measures prevail in 
the councils of its rulers. As so often he had done 
in the passing years, so once more he talked with 
the children of the United Sabbath Schools of the 
Foreign Churches, who gathered about him to hear 
his words of wisdom and loving exhortation. He 
spoke with impressive earnestness to the students of 
Oahu College on keeping those commandments that 
would add to them ''length of days and long life 
and peace. " 

When the work was done, and the visit ended, he 
returned to the home to which he always went back 
so gladly, and on July 20th he wrote: 



1 86 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

*^ One week ago we re-entered our quiet bower 
and knelt to bless the Lord. It was sweet to re- 
turn to the old nest, to see the luxurious green, to 
breathe the fresh air, and to bathe in the cool, 
limpid water. . . . We are preparing outwardly 
for the arrival of Mr. Hallenbeck, but it is not clear 
that we are all prepared inwardly to entertain our 
divine Lord and Master. For this we pray, for 
without him nothing good can be done." 

Mr. Coan was anxious to prepare his people by 
personal interviews with them for the evangelistic 
meetings which were to be held the latter part of 
August, under the leadership of Messrs. Hallenbeck 
and Forbes. Riding out among their little settle- 
ments, he would summon the natives around him 
by his well-known hearty call ** Aloha otikoiL " (love 
to you), and then having kindly inquired after their 
physical and spiritual estate, he would tell them of 
the blessing soon to be offered them, and urge their 
faithful attendance upon the anticipated services. 

The house of God was also to be put in readiness. 
There were many details of repairs and improve- 
ments which he himself must superintend. 

Discordant elements among backsliders and a few 
self-willed church members gave him concern and 
cost him hours of labor to harmonize. His prayers, 
his toils, were constant and untiring. Untiring? 
Ah! the poor frame was often weary, and he would 
say the strength of his feet was gone. But his heart 
was as ardent and as brave as ever. 

The burden of souls was always upon him, and in 
prayers never to be forgotten, he plead for the wan- 
derers and the unconcerned. A wonderful breadth 
of thought marked his petitions as he remembered 
a dying world and sought for blessings on every 
righteous cause. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 187 

Thus gladly spending and being spent for the 
Master whom he had so long served, he went on 
through the busy days, still taking time, as they 
passed, to meet the calls upon his pen. Some of 
the letters written at that period are these that fol- 
low. The one addressed to the Rev. Dr. Goodwin 
seems a precious legacy of Mr. Coan's latest thoughts 
on Foreign Missions. 

TO REV. N. G. CLAKK, D.D. (Cor. Sec. A. B. C. F. M.) 

July 25, 1882. — "It is a great pleasure to write 
to you, for your kindness of heart and Christian 
courtesy are cheering. Your favor of May 13 is a 
sunbeam. You give me liberal praise for my little 
octogenarian book, and your opinion is of great 
value — none could be more so. Thus far, all the 
notices I have seen of the book, and the many letters 
of thanks received, have been kind and congratula- 
tory; not, of course, on account of its intrinsic merit, 
but what is immeasurably better, because of sympathy 
and of joy in the blessed cause of missions to the 
heathen, the supreme work given by the Lord Jesus 
to his brethren. We on our ocean watch-tower are 
looking eastward and westward, south and north, to 
see the movements of the grand army of our King 
in its divisions over continents and islands and in 
its floating batteries. The watchmen are multiply- 
ing and sending out their voices from all points, 
declaring what they see of conquest or defeat, to 
bring joy or sorrow into the sacramental host. 
We rejoice that the light is not extinguished on the 
Marquesas group. From Micronesia the tidings are 
joyful and sad. War, drunkenness, idolatry, and 



1 88 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

debauchery rule on some of the islets, while cheer- 
ing sunlight shines on others. On Hawaii we have 
the lifting and the shutting down of the cloud. It 
is like ' a fitful April day/ and may we not hope 
that it is the harbinger of the tender leaves, the 
opening buds, the beauteous blossoms of May and 
June and the golden harvests of summer and 
autumn? 

"Dear wife and I have recently returned from a 
visit of six weeks in Honolulu, Of what we saw 
and heard and felt while there I can give you no 
adequate idea. It was a busy time. The Hawaiian 
Evangelical Association, with its pastors and dele- 
gates, was in session. The superintendents and 
delegates of the island Sabbath schools were assem- 
bled. The Hawaiian Executive Board was holding 
frequent meetings to attend to important business. 
There were examinations and exhibitions of Oahu 
College and various schools. . . . The Fourth 
of July brought two thousand people out to the 
usual exercises of such occasions, though better 
these, by half, than such exercises usually are, as 
we had an eloquent and moral oration, prayer, and 
good music, with a grand lunch without intoxicants. 
Another scene was the sailing of the 
Morning Star with the band of missionaries, with 
prayers and benedictions of a multitude of friends. 
Meanwhile, amidst all these scenes of stir and 
interest, Mr. Hallenbeck, the evangelist, com- 
menced his religious meetings, calling out large 
assemblies, to whom the Gospel was preached with 
great power and with the Holy Spirit sent down 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 189 

from heaven. We left Honolulu rejoicing in what 
the Lord had done for the place, physically and 
spiritually, and for what he is still doing. The physi- 
cal change from the wharf to Punahou and beyond, a 
distance of three miles in length, and one in breadth, 
is marvelous. From a sandy, hot, and barren 
heath, such as we first saw it in 1835, it has become 
like the garden of Eden, waving with light-green 
and feathery-leaved trees, adorned with gardens of 
beautiful flowers and fruit-bearing vines and shrubs, 
vocal with the song of a thousand birds, studded 
with mansions and neat cottages, and sparkling with 
the quivering irradiance of the waters of many gush- 
ing artesian wells. The whole scene, as viewed 
from Roundtop Hill, is one of inimitable beauty. 
Among others who are enjoying the beautiful water 
of the great subterranean reservoir, so long sealed 
by the Infinite Architect amidst* mountains which 
his hand planted in unknown ages past, are our 
friends, the Bingham family. While we were their 
guests the plan was matured and executed for boring 
an artesian well near their cottage. The work went 
on day and night, until, at the depth of 353 feet, 
the brilliant column of water spouted up in copious 
volume, and we all clapped hands and praised the 
Lord. . , . We are glad to see our quiet 
tabernacle again, with its tropical surroundings, all 
dressed in living green, and more especially to meet 
the dear people for whom our lives are devoted. On 
the first Sabbath after our arrival we met a larger 
congregation than we had seen for months in our 
church, and at the close of the services about fifty 



J 90 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

remained a full hour for prayer. . . . Adult 
Chinamen outnumber adult male Hawaiians by 
several hundreds, and we have great need of a faith- 
ful Chinese evangelist for this field. Mr. Frank 
Damon has just spent a week here in labors for our 
Chinamen. He is full of zeal, energy and devotion 
to the cause he has espoused. " 

Mr. Damon, afterwards alluding to that visit, 
wrote: "I shall always love to think of him as I saw 
him last in his study, standing like a hero, crowned 
with years of grand and faithful service. His very 
face seemed a benediction, and through all my life 
I shall count the memory of it as one of my most 
precious treasures." 

TO EEV. L. SMITH. 

Augicst 3, 1882. — "Yes, we should be very 
thankful for the peace and comfort we enjoy in our 
little nest in the Pacific. The earth, in many parts, 
rocks and reels and rends. War, earthquake, 
cyclone, pestilence, and famine, with bloody crimes, 
distress millions of the human family; while we, poor, 
thankless sinners, sit under our shades in ease and 
security. But will not our turn of sorrow come? 
The tiger is unchained. The fiery serpent is let 
loose, and the 'Destroyer is on his way to make our 
land desolate.' The tidings of this morning from 
Honolulu distress me. Those who should be our 
protectors have opened the flood-gates of a fiery 
ruin upon us in granting the free use of the demon, 
alcohol. And we hear, also, that the Legislature 
has appropriated more than 3,000,000 of dollars. 
But that seems only child's play. Suppose they had 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 191 

voted one hundred millions. It would only be 
empty air, and it might not have hurt a sparrow or 
killed a flea. But that great red-faced dragon! 
That ApoUyon, drunkenness , is to be dreaded. 
Well, we have only to look to the Hills for help, for 
vain is the help of man. We will trust if the 
heavens come down, and the mountains leap into 
the sea. Two years may tell the story which we 
may not tell now. If God will destroy this people, 
he will leave them in madness to make their own 
hemp and to dig their own graves. If he will save 
them it may be 'so as by fire.' Let us wait on the 
Lord, and let us pray. . . . Fight on, dear 
brother, till death? — no! till 'victory shall bring 
thee to thy God.'" 

TO EEV. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D. 

Augttst 14, 1882. — "You have presented a weighty 
subject for my consideration, and what can I say? 
Surely you who stand on the watch-towers of one of 
the most evangelical countries on earth, sweeping 
the whole spiritual horizon of our planet, can better 
report the state of Christianity in the world, and 
especially in our favored land, than we who occupy 
the distant stations in the shadowy realms of hea- 
thendom. 

''But as you ask for my impressions as to the cor- 
rectness of 'President Washburn's convictions that the 
American churches are losing their interest and faith 
in foreign missions,' allow me to say that, on the 
whole, I would regard this as a mistake; at least 
let me hope so. The waters of the world left to the 



192 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

laws of hydrostatics will find their level. Rivers 
flowing undisturbed in channels of uniform depth 
and breadth and angles of descent, will move 
smoothly and with increasing speed. But the 
Mississippi is so changed in its course by disturbances, 
that a stranger following down its devious banks 
might doubt where it would disembogue its mighty 
flood. But it is bound to the gulf and to the ocean, 
and, in spite of all its obstructions and sinuations, it 
will reach its destination. 

**In this light I look upon the church of God in 
the world. Its growth and progress are beautifully 
pictured in Ezek., 47th chap., and in the Revelation 
of John under the figure of a river. Ezekiel sees it 
as 'issuing out from under the house of the Lord, 
deepening, widening and extending into 'a river that 
could not be passed over.' And he adds that 
'Everything shall live whither the river cometh.' 
The same glowing figure is found in the last chapter 
oi the precious Bible. Doubtless this river means 
the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. 
And the carrying of this 'water of life ' is the work 
of God's people. The church must be the channel 
of conveyance, and, as God has now removed all 
formidable obstacles, and provided the means of 
rapid and universal communication with the nations 
and peoples of the earth, it is, doubtless, the solemn 
duty and the precious privilege of the children of 
Zion to carry the water of life to all the families of 
men; and with trump of jubilee, sounding from 
every hill-top and along every valley, to call a thirsty 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Coan. 195 

and perishing world to come to the gushing foun- 
tain/ to drink and live. 

* 'During my visit to the United States in 1870, I 
felt assured that many ministers of the gospel, and 
many churches were earnest and faithful in this work.. 
I also felt that many were delinquent, that they had 
never understood the marching orders of Zion's. 
King; that a veil was upon their hearts; that the 
god of this world had blinded their minds to the 
great, and only great life-work of the church, viz.: 
to ^disciple all nations.' But I did not feel that the 
work, on the whole, was retrograding; any more 
than that the 'Father of waters' was running up hill 
to empty into the Northern Polar ocean. 

"I admired the work of women. It is great and 
grand. It is full of the sunshine of love. Its 
prayers are as the rain of heaven. Its tears are the 
drops of spring, opening its buds and giving promise 
of a joyful harvest. And I began to feel that our 
women are yet to save our dear country from the 
fiery dragon of intemperance, and the petrifying 
power of infidelity. I do not believe that the 
s^x^QAOXi.'i, precious cause of missions is to be left to a 
blind and mad indifference, and that the lamps of 
life which are shining, though dimly, upon the 
benighted nations, are to be extinguished for want 
of oil. But I did and do feel that our love to our 
bleeding Savior is too cold, and our pity for our 
perishing brethren and sisters in lands of brooding 
darkness is too feeble. We are not awake to our 
privileges. Bronze gates are open, iron bars are 
broken, and the voice of the Eternal calls the church ta 



194 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

improve the opportunity, lest Satan shall pre-occupy 
the field, and scatter the seeds of infidelity which 
shall prove a more stubborn obstacle to the blessed 
Gospel than the old paganism. The Captain of our 
salvation calls out of heaven to his church to 'arise 
and shine.' But the increase of professed Christians, 
of intelligence and of wealth, and the multiplied 
facilities for Christian work are not rightly improved. 
Zion does not lengthen her cords and strengthen her 
stakes fast enough. The heathen are marching by 
annual millions into ruin while we enjoy our luxuries 
and are at ease. The contributions of the church 
should be increased ten fold in means and in living 
workers, and also in the clear understanding of the 
fervent effectual prayer, 'Thy kingdom come.' 

''You ask an explanation of the apathy of Chris- 
tians in regard to foreign missions. I will simply 
suggest a few of the multiform causes as they have 
struck my mind. The main root is worldliness and 
self-gratification. To many wealth comes in like a 
flood. Perhaps the like was never known before. 
Now it seems to be a law of human nature that 
an unchecked desire for wealth beguiles and blinds 
men. Accumulation begets the lust for accumula- 
tion until the rich man is ensnared and drowned in 
^destruction and perdition.' There are rich men 
who are rich in faith and in good works. Such are 
God's stewards. But the masses of wealthy men are 
not of this stamp. 

"A canker that eats deep into the hearts of 
thousands upon thousands of professed Christians is 
an unguarded and unscrupulous love for luxuries. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 195 

They give the penny to the Lord and the pound to 
the mansion and the furnishings, to gHttering orna- 
ments and unnecessary show. Tens of thousands 
live in houses that cost thirty, fifty and a hundred 
thousand dollars, with furnishings in equally expen- 
sive proportions, when they might have reduced 
these expenses one-half or three-fourths without 
loss on the score of comfort and convenience, and 
given the great balance to the suffering poor and the 
perishing heathen. 

''For armies, for navies, for war and strife, for 
blood and agony and dying groans, for millions of 
souls sent shivering into eternity, gold and silver 
can be poured out in streams that flow like melted 
lavas, while for the rescue of 800,000,000 of souls 
that are hurrying into a dark and fearful future, only 
a few drops of mercy can be afforded. Alas for the 
church! Must we be weighed in the balances and 
be found wanting? 

"O that a harvesting angel might be sent from 
heaven to gather up the hoarded and the wasted 
wealth of the churches to pour it into the treasury 
of the Lord. Many of the hard-laboring poor so 
pathetically depicted in 'The Song of the Shirt' give 
more in the sight of our adorable Savior than the 
rich millionaire. 

"As to the motives which lead missionaries to the 
heathen, they are plain to all enlightened Christians. 
'The love of Christ constrains;'^ and his command, 
coupled with love for the perishing, is a motor that 
moves them to obedience. Of course success 
encourages, and failure leads to the inquiry. Why? 



196 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

I commenced my life work cheerfully and in hope, 
because I felt called of Christ to do so, and because 
my heart was drawn out in pity for the heathen. 
Success followed and increased joy, courage and 
strength. Had I gone to China, or some harder 
field, I might have felt sad for want of apparent and 
immediate success; but I trust that I should not 
have forsaken the work, or doubted the duty of 
discipling the nations, or the promised presence of 
the Master. 

''The Hawaiians are poor, and yet as to their 
percentage of giving, there is no comparison between 
our native churches and the wealthy members of 
your churches in the United States. They give a 
thousand per cent, more than your rich men. And 
they often do it with shining faces and jubilant 
hearts. But all do not give. We have the stingy 
and the scoffer. I usually preach a missionary 
sermon, or something connected with generosity, on 
the first Sabbath of every month, giving my people 
such facts as keep them informed on what God and 
his children are doing to evangelize the nations. 

''Three words embrace our whole commission to 
the heathen, viz: Pray! Give! Go! And how can 
a man pray 'Thy kingdom come,' while he gives 
nothing, or nothing worthy of a man, to help the 
conquests and enlargements of this kingdom? How 
can the ambassadors of the Lord go without means 
of support? or preach to the heathen unless they be 
sent? What must we think of pastors and churches 
who are often chanting 'The Lord's Prayer,' without 



Memorial of Rev. Co an. Titus 197 

giving or going? Will not their very prayers con- 
demn them before the final judge? 

'*I fear that the absolute dependence on the 
presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the con- 
version of our lost world is too little felt everywhere, 
not excepting your unworthy correspondent. I fear 
that too much dependence is put on machinery, 
upon learning, eloquence and popular preaching and 
living, such as will please the fastidious, and gratify 
* itching ears.' And I fear that strict and cheerful 
obedience to God, that supreme element of true love 
and pure religion, is not taught and urged as it 
should be, as the co7iditioit of acceptance before the 
Lord. 

' 'Please let me know if I have in any way answered 
your questions satisfactorily. 

''With great respect and brotherly love, I am 
your fellow-laborer in the kingdom and patience of 
Jesus Christ. TiTUS COAN. " 

Mr. Coan had sometimes said that if God would 
grant him once more to see life among "the dry 
bones," he thought he could pray "now lettest thou 
thy servant depart in peace. " When the blessing came 
in the reviving influences of the Holy Spirit, which 
attended his own labors among his people after his 
return from Honolulu, and which continued to be 
manifested during the gospel meetings held by the 
evangelists, his soul rejoiced and blessed the Lord. 
But he was still eager, while strength remained, to 
be about his Father's business. 

Early in September, the East Hawaii Association 
met in Hilo. With cheerful endurance he daily 
attended its long, wearying sessions until they 



198 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

closed. On the morning after the adjournment, 
Sept. 15th, he said, "Now the pressure is hfted 
somewhat, I am going to break out to-day. I will 
go among the people to find a little exercise and 
recreation." At family worship that morning the 
Psalm in course was the 103d. He read it with 
deep feeling ; pausing a little to talk about the 
Lord's putting our sins from us "as far as the east 
is from the west," and about the precious thought 
of the Heavenly Father's pity for his children. A 
tender pathos was in his voice while he read, "As 
for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the 
field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over 
it, and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall know 
it no more. " Yet he knew not, as he laid down the 
family Bible, that he should never again read from 
its sacred pages, and that the place at which he 
knelt to pray would know him no more. 

After prayers he went to his study, as was his 
custom; and, in the hours that followed, probably 
prepared the brief of the next Sabbath's sermon, 
from the text, "Looking unto Jesus." When re- 
minded of his purpose to seek relaxation, he left his 
desk at once, saying he had been prompted just at 
the right time. 

Mr. Coan's outings always seemed those of the 
sower, going forth to sow. It is remembered that 
on this his last walk about the streets of the little 
village, he was seen standing in conversation with a 
foreigner whom he earnestly entreated to lead a 
purer life. 

Cheered by his walk, and refreshed by the daily 
bath, in the afternoon he again repaired to his 
study. Unanswered letters were on his table ; he 
would reply to those from two young nephews, sons 
of the missionary to Persia. He wrote to each ; 
and to the elder thus: 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 1 99 

"my dear nephew feed: 

"If you are filled with the spirit of love and 
obedience to Christ, and an earnest, pure desire to 
win souls for the Master, your life will be useful 
and happy. I presume you do not belong to the 
class of young Christian students who spend the 
seed-time of life, and the flower of youth, in prep- 
aration to be useful, but rather, that while diligent 
in your studies you are 'fervent in spirit' and in 
prayer ; and active in all proper ways and seasons 
in doing good. A very important part of our prep- 
aration for the service of the Master consists in 
earnest labors to save souls while we are cultivating 
our mental powers by study. I would not make 
myself an example of fidelity, but would bless the 
Lord for inclining me, long before my decision to 
study for the ministry, and during my theological 
course, to watch for souls, and to improve oppor- 
tunities by the wayside and everywhere, as Provi- 
dence gave them, to speak a word for Jesus. And 
these exercises did not hinder but helped my studies^ 
as they brought me into contact with humanity in 
its multiform shades and aspects, and helped me 
much during my whole ministry in winning souls 
for Christ. How many pious and ardent young 
men have studied hard in college and seminary 
with the hope of future fruitfulness, when disease 
and death rapped at the door, took them suddenly 
away, and called them apparently * empty handed,' 
or with ' nothing but leaves,' to their last account. 
Thus we are admonished to work while it is day, to 
sow our seed in the morning, in the evenijtg, beside 



200 Memorial of Rev. Titles Coan. 

all waters, and everywhere and always to be found 
working in the Master's vineyard, until he comes to 
call us to a higher service. My prayer shall ever 
be that you may be fully consecrated, and meet for 
the work and warfare of life, having put on the 
whole armor of God. " 

Once more he dipped his pen and wrote a few 
lines to his *' ever dear brother Lyons," but the 
letter was never finished. Reading and sweet dis- 
course filled the evening hours of that day. 

On the following morning a messenger came, 
bearing summons from the Master. Mr. Coan 
seemed to have caught some vision of him; he called 
him " a beautiful messenger," and told us he had 
come to bid him away. He said he believed it was 
his time to go, and with solemn earnestness he re- 
peated Paul's memorable words, ** The time of my 
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight ; 
I have finished my course. I have kept the faith ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness. " 

The bodily powers failed rapidly; but his soul 
triumphed, and testified of its faith and love in such 
exultant strains, it seemed as if he were improvising 
some " psalm of life," of which the frequent refrain 
was " Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! " Then, exhausted, 
he slept. When roused, by direction of the doctor, 
to take the medicine prescribed, he said: " O, why 
did you call me back? I was almost home, in my 
Father's house." Having somewhat revived, he 
said to his wife, " If I do not go to-day, it will be 
a disappointment to me; but if you say I must stay, 
and your prayers prevail, I am willing to remain. 
Let His will be done, entirely.'' 

The faithful physicians, Drs. Wetmore and Kit- 
tredge, and Mr. Coan's son, who lived near, to- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 201 

gether with her with whom he had " walked in lov- 
ing fellowship," watched by him though all that day 
and night, believing that the end was very near. 

Sabbath morning many friends came in to see 
him. One of these wrote: " His simple, sweet 
faith, his constant outbreaks of rapture, his testi- 
mony to the support of Jesus, in the dying hour, 
make it a sacred joy to be with him. At times his 
utterance is unintelligible, feeble and low, then it 
rises into strong and beautiful distinctness. There 
is only one tone to his soul — it is all joy and peace 
there. The natives who had heard of his condition 
were coming and going, the room being filled most 
of the time. They drew about his bedside, leaning 
over him in great sadness and solemnity. For all 
of them he had a blessed word of counsel or testi- 
mony; a favorite quotation from scripture, or a 
prayer. " 

As the church bells rang for service he asked what 
bells they were, and having been told he responded: 
" Yes, they will have their meeting to-day, but it 
will not be mine; I shall go to the assembly of the 
first-born. " 

But the *' abundant entrance " v^as not to be at 
once. He whose life had ever been one of rare ac- 
tivity, was to be a beautiful ensample of saintly 
patience in serving while he waited. In the pres- 
ence of the messenger he had exclaimed, " O, death, 
where is thy sting! O, grave, where is thy victory! " 
And when asked if he had any fears, he h^d an- 
swered, " When I look at myself, I see no reason 
why I should be in heaven; when I look at Jesus, 
I see such a Savior I have no fears, not one, not 
one. 

Afterwards, as wearisome days and nights were 
appointed him, he bore witness often to the pres- 
ence of the Comforter. " I know it is of the Lord," 
he would say, " and what he does is best. I bow 



2 02 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coaii. 

to his will entirely, entirely. " When one grieved 
for him, that he must pass the days in the " distress 
of disability," the utter helplessness of paralyzed 
limbs, he said, smiling sweetly, " Let patience have 
her perfect work, her perfect zvork. That is my 
motto. I say it to myself every day and Go(;J helps 
me. We have everything to be thankful for; the 
Lord is very good to us. " 

A remarkable degree of memory and great clear- 
ness of mind were granted to the dear invalid 
through all those weeks of waiting. He retained 
an unfailing interest in the world's progress, and 
listened to all that could be read to him. He heard 
to the end the three closely printed sheets of the 
Portland Press, not wishing to have one paragraph 
omitted of that paper's report of the meeting of the 
American Board. As we read to him from Mrs. 
Thurston's "Book of Reminiscences," he delighted in 
recalling the experiences of missionary toil through 
which they both had passed. Chapters in Mr. 
Kimball's book on " Heaven " gave him great com- 
fort, while letters from beloved friends were wel- 
comed as often as they came. Yet he was not 
inclined to talk ^t any length, and would sometimes 
say that he was not thinking much, only found it 

sweet to lie passive in His hands and know no will 
but His. " Sometimes, in reply to inquiries how he 
felt, he would answer, "I feel pretty well, as if I 
ought to be up and at work;" and then would tell 
of his dreams, in which he had been calling over 
long lists of names, assigning to each one some task 
to be done. Once he said, "I can't rest with my 
Redeemer. The Redeemer doesn't rest; he works 
always. " 

There were many touching scenes through all those 
days. Aged men, who in their prime had been the 
companions of the beloved missionary in his tours, 
came long distances to speak once more with their 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 203 

revered teacher. Leaving their shoes at an outer 
door, they stepped softly into the room where he 
lay, and, with tears coursing down their cheeks, 
pressed the hand that had so often been extended 
to them. Then kneeling by the bedside they would 
pour out their grief in tender prayer to God. 

On the 1st of November, at Mr. Coan's request, 
the candidates for admission to the church assembled 
in the parlor of his home. Unable, himself, to take 
active part in the examination held, he listened to 
it as conducted by the venerable Father Lyman and 
the assistant Hawaiian minister. At its conclusion, 
as the eighteen candidates passed from the room., he 
gave his left hand to each and spoke a word of gra- 
cious benediction, his own face radiant with holy 
peace, while others wept. 

About the eighth week of his sickness there began 
to be so much gain of strength and vitality in the 
prostrated frame that hopes of his recovery revived 
in the hearts of his friends. A comfortable manele, 
or reclining chair, was made for him, and in this, 
borne on the shoulders of strong men, he was car- 
ried about the village. Those who saw him on these 
occasions spoke of his beautiful, bright smiles, and 
of his courteous greetings as they met him. Ever 
thoughtful of others, he sometimes directed the 
bearers to rest by lowering the manele to the 
ground; and while they thus halted, natives from 
houses near by gathered about him. Their plaint- 
ive wails were touching, but in his placid eyes there 
was a wondrous look of heavenly love and calm. 
Heaven was not far away. 

Not infrequently during the last month Mr. Coan 
was able to lead in prayer at the morning or even- 
ing devotions. And he prayed as if in the very 
presence of the Father. As a trustful child sure of 
forgiveness, he confessed his sins and quietly com- 
mitted his soul to the faithful Keeper. 



2 04 Meinorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

On the morning of Friday, ist December, after a 
very restful night, we thought him better than he 
had been at any time before since his attack. At 
noon, in preparation for the daily airing, he was 
lifted from the bed and aided to his easy chair. As 
his head leaned upon the pillow fitted to it a pallor 
and look of pain passed over his face, and to the 
anxious inquiry, "What is it, darling?" he answered, 
" I am going." Yes, the hour to go had come. 
The heavenly visitant, whose first coming had been 
at dawn, September i6, had tarried for a while that 
precious seasons in the land of Beulah might, to the 
survivors, give glimpses of glory to be revealed. 
Now he was ready to take the beloved toiler to 
higher service. Tender counsels and blessed testi- 
monies had long been uttered. What need of 
more? Three words of " Farewell," spoken calmly 
— slowly; the name of Jesus whispered with the 
latest breath, and then he stood before the King, 

" Faultless in His glory's presence I 
Faultless in that dazzling light. " 

The 3d December was a Sabbath of most exquisite 
loveliness. Something of the beauty of those 
heavenly fields " in living green," and of the bright- 
ness of the upper courts seemed reflected upon the 
earth. But in Hilo flags were for the third day at 
half-mast, and a slow-tolling bell called together a 
company of weeping mourners. The precious re- 
mains of the departed pastor were borne to the 
church, and once more his people looked upon the 
noble face so calmly beautiful in death. 

Occupying- the draped pulpit of their revered 
friend, the Reverends Mr. Lyman, Mr. Baker, and 
Mr. Oleson, with the Hawaiian pastors, Mr. Kalana 
and Mr. Pahio, took their assigned parts in reading 
the Scriptures, in prayers, and in addresses. The 
sweet hymns, "There is a land of pure delight," 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 205 

and '' Nearer, my God, to Thee," were sung. Then 
a long procession followed the hearse, drawn by 
many kindly hands, to the place of burial. No 
more fitting or beautiful spot on all the earth could 
be a quiet resting place for the sainted dead. Into 
a flower-strewn grave the sacred dust was lowered, 
while tearful voices sang, 

"Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep, 
From which none ever wake to weep." 

The venerable Father Ljman offered one more 
prayer, and then "all that love the deepest, the 
tenderest, all that respect and honor, the highest 
and truest could do, had been done; and in un- 
doubting hope of a glorious resurrection we left him 
there." 



2o6 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 



XIV. 

I N M EMORIAM. 

* * When the weary ones we love 
Enter on their rest above, 
Seems the earth so poor and vast, 
All our life joy overcast? 
Hush! be every murmur dumb, 
It is only ' Till He come.' " 

As Mr. Coan's Hilo friends desired another 
occasion when in some public way they might still 
witness to the esteem and affection in which his 
memory was cherished, they held a Memorial 
Service in Haili Church 'on the 25th of March, 1883, 
Portions of papers and letters read at that time, 
together with some of later dates, are gathered into 
this thesattrtcs, in the hope that to many who knew 
and loved the friend thus mourned and honored, 
these tributes may be valuable. 

FKOM WM. T. BRIGHAM. 

Boston, Jan. i, 1883. 

TO KEY. E. p. baker: 

"The letter just received informing me of the 
death of my dear and honored friend, Titus Coan, 
causes mingled feelings of sadness and chastened 
joy. I look back to those very happy days when 
he was my Mentor in exploring Puna and Kilauea, 
and my kind host in the Emerald Bower; to the 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 207 

later years when he was aiding science so effectually 
by his wise correspondence; to the visit he made me 
in my own home; to our last meeting two years ago 
in Hilo; and to the last letter I had from him so 
full of kindness and lov.e. But is it not a joy to have 
known, and to be the friend of such a man ? To 
those of us who are still groping and stumbling on 
in this dark world, what consolation his life offers ! 
How well he, through all the years of a long and 
useful life, kept steadily on the narrow path with his 
face set tovv^ard Zion. Can we doubt that he has 
heard the blessed words, 'Well done, thou good 
and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord?' 
"No narrow bounds confined his work, and while 
acting as a true bishop to his flock, and a wise citi- 
zen and friend, he yet found time to do more for sci- 
ence in watching and recording the wonderful fiery 
work of Kilauea and Mokuaweoweo, than all other 
men united. To day, wherever the phenomena of 
volcanoes and earthquakes are studied, the name 
of Titus Coan is familiar, and no work on the Ha- 
waiian volcanoes would have much value that did 
not quote largely from his reports. Science will 
enroll his name among the illustrious dead of the 
departed year, and in the name of my fellow- 
scientists here I hasten to offer a tribute to his 
memory. Will you lay upon the new-made grave 
a wreath of maile, as I would do if present, 
as an offering from me, who loved, honored and 
never doubted Titus Coan ? May its leaves be a 
token that here, so many thousand miles away, we 
will keep his memory green." 



2o8 Memorial of Rn\ Titus Co an. 

FROM KEY. J. R. BOYD, D. D. 

Albany, Jan. 2, 1883. 

TO MRS. COAN. 

. . . . "Only last night at family worship I of- 
fered supplication for his recovery and health, and a 
return to a life of active usefulness, when it seems 
he had been a month in the sanctuary above — a 
happy spirit before the throne. My tears mingle 
with yours at his departure. I have just been bless- 
ing God anew for my acquaintance with your dear 
husband, for his friendship, his love, his letters, his 
prayers, and for my personal intercourse with him 
under your own hospitable roof, which at times 
seemed almost the vestibule of heaven. Times in- 
numerable I have recalled the happy weeks passed 
with him, and our seasons of converse upon divine 
truths. I bless God for prolonging his life until the 
publication of his * Life in Hawaii,' and also for the 
continuity of his labors for Christ through so long a 
period. " 

FROM REV. N. G. CLARK, D. D. 

{^Corresp07iding Secretajy of A. B. C. F. M.) 

Boston, Jan. 3, 1883. 

TO REV. E. p. BAKER. 

"Your favor of Dec. 14 in regard to our honored 
and beloved missionary, Mr. Coan, has just come to 
hand. I have not time or strength to enter into 
any detailed account of his very valuable labors 
and most remarkable life. Others will do it. I can- 
not but congratulate you on the privilege of having 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 209 

known such a man, and shared in his sympathies 
and large and generous Christian views. It is an 
education to know and be intimate with such a man, 
and his influence upon your own Hfe and character 
will doubtless be reflected for years in your min- 
istry. " 

FROM MRS. EDWARD E. WATERS. 

Sandwich, Mass., Jan. 4, 1883.. 

. "There are many incidents of my child- 
hood connected with father which I can never for- 
get, but the present sorrow is too great to think of 
much but the magnitude of our loss. That which 
stands out most clearly and brightly before me now,, 
is his whole character, to which I would reverently 
and affectionately pay a few words of tribute. As 
a father he was firm, but his firmness was so tem- 
pered of gentleness born of love, as to 'cast out 
fear.' Not a day passed without some expression 
of his deep aflection. It might be a bright smile,, 
and a jest about his little bird, made to a little girl 
swinging in the top of a guava tree, or a snatched 
kiss as the same little girl flew past him in the romp 
of a game. In childhood, girlhood and woman- 
hood to think of him was to say to one's self, ' Papa 
loves me.' And to the boundless love of his nature 
I think you, his townsmen, can bear witness. 'With 
malice toward none, with charity for all,' might fit- 
tingly be his epitaph, for it was the sin and not the 
sinner against which he battled. Of his sweetness, 
gentleness, patience, moral courage, enduring faith 
and buoyancy of heart it is not my province to 



2IO Memorial of Rev. TitJis Coafi. 

speak, more than to say these traits of character 
made a lasting impression on my child mind. 

"I can remember no angry Avord, no impatience 
amid all the trials of life, nor even a complaint that 
life had its hardships, of which he endured many in 
his long career. 

"So there is laid to rest a loving and loved parent, 
whose children rise up and call him blessed. ' He 
lived by Faith' he requests inscribed on his tomb. 
The words recall an incident of my very young 
childhood. He was endeavoring to make clear the 
meaning of perfect faith, and wished to illustrate it, 
as Avas his custom, by a practical application. I was 
to stand on the top of a high wardrobe and jump, 
without injury, he assured me, into his arms. It 
was some time before his affectionate coaxings and 
promises of safety could overcome to my mind the 
obstacle of that hard floor beneath onto which I 
might fall. But I finally jumped unhurt, and the 
lesson on faith went home with lasting force. 

"He had faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of 
these was charity. " 

FROM KEV. S. J. HUMPHEEY, D. D. 

{^District Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M.) 

Chicago, Jan. 5, 1883. 

TO KEV. E. p. BAKER. 

" I can think of no more beautifully 
ordered departure than Mr. Coan's. It seemed 
eminently fitting that he who had labored with such 
restless energy should show that, at his Lord's bid- 
ding, he could also suffer and wait. It will always 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. 211 

be a delightful memory with me that when this 
saint of God was visiting this country, I was per- 
mitted to come into personal fellowship with him, 
and to hear from his own lips of the wonderful suc- 
cess of his labors through the abounding grace of 
God. Nothing in my official life of nineteen years 
has given me greater pleasure or been productive of 
more good, I think, than the preparing of a narra- 
tive of the great revival as he was connected with 
it, drawn from his own lips and from his exceed- 
ingly interesting letters. 

"It is a very delightful thought that a life which 
had witnessed such scenes of revival should have 
given its last labors in special efforts for lost souls, 
and that in the midst of the toils of a season of 
refreshing from the Most High the tense bow should 
have broken. There was a divine and delightful 
fitness that the spirit of the aged warrior should 
ascend to its reward from the battle-field where the 
gracious conflict was still raging, and where such 
amazing triumphs of infinite love had been achieved. 

" I trust that your Memorial Service will be one 
of great spiritual profit, and that in rendering due 
respect to the friend and father departed, there will 
come fresh honor to the blessed King and Lord 
whom it was his highest ambition to serve." 

FROM REV. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D. 

Chicago, Jan. 18, 1883. 

TO MRS. CO AN. 

"All our hearts bear you up lovingly in this hour 
of sorrow. Yet we all know how the light must 



212 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. 

shine upon your way from those opened gates 
through which the dear departed has entered into 
the better country. Such a going home as his — 
after a Hfe all given to the Master's service, and a 
life that had seen the harvests garnered in a way 
hardly permitted to another missionary toiler — was 
like a hero's triumph. It seems to me as if John 
Bunyan's vision must have been more than realized, 
and all the sky been filled with horses and chariots 
of fire, and harpers on stringed instruments to wel- 
come this honored servant as he went in at the 
gates of the city. As I listen, that mighty anthem 
of ineffable praise seems to breathe celestial music 
on the air, " Blessing and honor and glory and 
power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb forever and ever." And amid 
the pauses of the harmony I seem to see your hus- 
band led up by a mighty angel to receive a crown 
thick set with stars, and with it the dear Lord's 
"Well done." Surely such a going home as that is 
all victory, and to be rejoiced in even through our 
tears. " 

FROM REV. E. K. ALDEN, D. D. 

(^Corresponding Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M.) 

Boston, Jan. 30, 1883. 

TO MISS BINGHAM. 

''You and your sister and other friends have been 
much in our thoughts and prayers of late. We sat 
with you, a great many of us, during those weeks 
when you were watching for the departure of your 
and our Elijah. We were not near enough to see 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 213 

the ascension or the chariots, possibly not even to 
catch the falUng mantle, though we would gladly do 
it, but with you and a great multitude around the 
world who felt as though they had personally known 
him, we cried, " My father, my father! the chariots 
of Israel and the horsemen thereof. " 

It was once my high honor to have Mr. Coan in 
my own pulpit, and to hear then from his lips the 
story which has thrilled so many, of the great in- 
gathering of his Pentecostal years of labor. I have 
been permitted during the past six years and more 
to speak of him in a great many pulpits all over the 
land; and since his departure have seemed almost 
to see him looking down serenely from his present 
exalted point of vision, and encouraging us who 
remain, with his animating words. He will abide 
in our missionary firmament like Sirius and Orion 
in the skies above us in the night season." 

FROM REV. C. M. HYDE, D. D. 

(^President of the North Pacific Theological Institute.) 
TO MRS. coan: 

"To our whole community the tidings of Mr. 
Coan's death came as unexpectedly as suddenly. 
And to the mission circle it was like the falling of 
Table Rock, that had stood so long and borne itself 
so sturdily in the midst of Time's Niagara-like flood 
of commotion and change. He had not only iden- 
tified himself with his beloved Hilo, and the won- 
drous transformations of these forty bygone years, 
but here at Honolulu his annual visit to the general 
meeting, and active participation in the consultations 



214 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

and decisions of the June anniversaries, was one of 
the marked features of the occasion. What will the 
mission work of the Sandwich Islands be without 
Titus Coan ? 

"His name and his life are identified with God's 
marvelous work of grace in these islands, the over- 
throw of pagan cruelty and superstition, the spread 
of Christian truth and love, the upbuilding of the 
institutions of piety and philanthropy. The earthen 
vessel is broken, but the fragrant perfume of divine 
grace will linger long in the loving memories with 
which his name will be associated and cherished. 
We are glad to know that in the closing days of life 
he had ample time for last loving thoughts and 
labors for those whom he knew he must soon leave, 
and that the final summons came not in conflict and 
agony, but in such gentle guise as brings to mind 
the old Jewish tradition of the death of Moses, whose 
breath Jehovah kissed away. 

"Our family send to you their sympathy alike in 
the grief at parting with one so honored on earth, 
and the joy of anticipating for him the eternal bless- 
edness of the rest of heaven. " 

FROM KEV. H. BINGHAM. 

"I can never forget the great hospitality of Mr. 
Coan when I have visited Hilo. I cannot forget his 
cordial manner and pleasant smiles; his deep inter- 
est in the foreign work in Micronesia; his thorough 
work as a delegate of the Hawaiian Board, in the 
Marquesas in 1867; his zeal in collecting funds for 
missionary purposes; his promptness in meeting his 



Memorial of Rev. Titles Coan. 215 

appointments; his regular attendance at the annual 
meetings of the Association in Honolulu, and his 
great liberality. Did my memory serve me well, I 
would like to go back forty-five years to the days 
when Brother Coan's words of love to the mission 
children thrilled our young hearts, and made us 
realize the love of Jesus, and the duty we were 
under of giving our hearts to him in our childhood. 
Will the fading past re-appear in vivid distinctness 
when we drink of the waters of Life above ?" 

FROM REV. S. C. DAMON, D. D. 

"The grand business of Mr. Coan's life has been 
to preach the Gospel among Hawaiians, and right 
nobly has he performed his life-work. But he had 
broad sympathies, which led him to labor efficiently 
for his fellow-men of all races, so far as they were 
brought under his influence. For many years he 
has been a most efficient seamen's chaplain. Assisted 
by the Rev. Mr. Lyman, a chaplaincy was sustained 
at Hilo, by their voluntary, well-directed efforts, 
which for usefulness equaled almost any chaplaincy 
in any other part of the world. 

" Upon this subject I can speak with great freedom 
and assurance, for during the past forty years I have 
been in the most intimate correspondence with Mr. 
Coan. I feel sure the spiritual interests of seamen 
attached to the whaling fleet and vessels of war 
could not have been more thoughtfully cared for if 
a chaplain had been sent out from America or Eng- 
land for this special field of labor; yet this extra 
service was discharged with the most hearty cheer 



2i6 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

and thoughtful consideration. Many masters, offi- 
cers and seamen must have good reason to bless 
God to all eternity that they touched at Hilo in their 
long voyages, and came under the happy influence 
of Mr. Coan and other resident missionaries at that 
port. 

*'He loved to preach the Gospel. He was no 
ordinary preacher, but was often truly eloquent, in 
both English and Hawaiian. As a platform speaker 
few were more ready and eloquent. 

"Some men are distinguished in their public ca- 
reer, but fail when viewed in the home circle and by 
their neighbors. We believe it was the good fort- 
une of our departed brother to appear at his very 
best at home and among his familiar friends. He 
was most considerate and thoughtful of those with 
whom he came in familiar intercourse. How often 
have we heard guests refer to the home of the Mis- 
sionary, Coan, in Hilo, and have there ourselves 
experienced his kindness. I am happy to bear my 
testimony to the purity, refinement and ideal beauty 
and excellency of that home. It was one of "XH. 
Homes," so enthusiastically described by the Rev. 
Dr. Chaney in his volume entitled 'Aloha.' 

"While there are other traits to which I might 
make reference, as, for example, his love for science 
and nature, there is one characteristic to which I 
would not fail to allude. I refer to his love for chil- 
dren. They were in his thoughts continually, and 
his correspondence with many of them, outside of 
his family circle, was most interesting. He delighted 
to preach for their special benefit. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 217 

"In contemplating his life and character I am 
forcibly reminded of the old Roman saying, ''Mens 
Sana in corpore sano. " With these he was right 
royally endowed by the author of his being, and 
when we reflect that to these were added a good ed- 
ucation, a naturally poetic temperament, and an 
emotional, spiritual nature, it is apparent that Rev. 
Titus Coan stands forth as a man of no ordinary 
abilities and endowments. He will be remembered 
as one of the noble men who have in modern times 
been leaders in the world's evangelization. Such 
men may have been sustained by some local or na- 
tional missionary society or organization, but they 
belong to the church universal, the catholic church. 
Carey, Williams, Livingston, Pattison and Moffat 
head the list of English Protestant missionaries, 
while Judson, Mills, Goodell, Bingham, Thurston 
and others lead off in the noble phalanx of those 
who have left America. 

"Among those noble men our friend who has just 
passed away will have his allotted place. 

" ' Servant of Christ, well done, 
Praise be thy new employ; 
And, while eternal ages run, 
Eest in thy Savior's joy.' " 

FROM PROF. W. D. ALEXANDER. 

"Our lamented friend, Mr. Coan, was one who 
looked through nature up to nature's God. 

"The sublime volcanic phenomena which he 
witnessed were to him but manifestations of the 
power and glory of the Creator, and with the inspired 
poet of old he would exclaim 'He looketh upon the 



2i8 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

earth and it trembleth; He toucheth the hills and 
they smoke; He uttered his voice and the earth 
melted. The hills melted like wax at the presence 
of the Lord.' 

"Although he had not enjoyed any special scientific 
training, and made no pretensions to the character 
of a professional geologist, he was a good observer 
and of sound judgment; while for physical vigor and 
endurance he had few equals. As a mountain 
climber he would have been qualified for admission 
into the Alpine Club. In addition to these qualities 
he had a natural gift of language, and his descriptions 
are remarkably vivid and true to nature. 

"At the visit of the United States Exploring Ex- 
pedition in 1840, he made the acquaintance of 
several distinguished scientific gentlemen. Among 
these Prof. J. D. Dana, so distinguished as a Chris- 
tian philosopher, continued to be his life-long friend 
and correspondent. 

"Afterwards, in 1846, Prof. C. S. Lyman, now of 
the Sheffield Scientific School, was his guest for 
several months and formed a friendship interrupted 
only by death. 

"During the year 1840 occurred the first great 
eruption from Kilauea which had taken place since 
1823. It was thoroughly explored by Mr. Coan, 
who wrote a graphic description of it which was 
published in the Missionary Herald for July 1841. 

"Since then there have been six great eruptions 
of Mauna Loa, besides many lesser eruptions, earth- 
quakes and volcanic waves; all of which phenomena 
were duly observed and recorded by Mr. Coan. 



Memoi'ial of Rev. Titus Coan. 219 



His original reports are contained in the Missionaiy 
Herald, and the American Journal of Science, 
besides which he has given us graphic descriptions 
of these phenomena in his ' Autobiography.' 

"To him Geology is indebted for a continuous 
record of the Hawaiian volcanoes for more than forty 
years. With indefatigable energy he traced almost 
every eruption to its source on the mountain side, 
and observed it in all its various phases. The near 
view which he had of the sublime lava fountain of 
1852, was an experience Gnparalleled by anything 
on record. 

"No history of the two volcanoes of Mauna Loa 
and Kilauea can be written which will not be largely 
based on Mr. Coan's writings. This fact will be 
evident to any one who will read Dana's 'Geology ' or 
Brigham's 'Monograph on Hawaiian Volcanoes.' On 
several questions of geology he has furnished valu- 
able data, such as the manner in which lava streams 
advance many miles over the surface of the earth 
without being fed by fissures or vents from below; 
the formation of lava tree moulds, etc. On one 
occasion he risked his life in attempting to measure 
the heat of the liquid lava in the South Lake of 
Kilauea with a pyrometer furnished by Prof. Darfa. 

"But these were only episodes in a most laborious 
and useful life. Our departed friend thought little 
of them in comparison with his main object, to bring 
immortal beings to a saving knowledge of Jesus 
Christ, and to lead them gradually upward to higher 
stages in Christian civilization. It is this part of his 
work which will be lasting as eternity. Even if the 



220 Memorial of Rev. Titits Coan. 

race which he loved and labored for should become 
extinct on earth, it will still be represented in heaven. 
The influence of his labors will continue to be felt in 
Hawaii 7iei for generations to come. Truly 'his 
works do follow him.' " 

FROM HOX. S. N. CASTLE. 

"I had a pleasant acquaintance with Mr. Coan in 
the spring of 1828. We were' both employed in 
adjoining stores in Western New York, and we 
boarded at the same house, sitting at the same 
table. After a few weeks we parted, and I did not 
again meet him till three years later as he passed 
through the place where I then lived on his way to 
Auburn, to prepare himself for his chosen life-work. 
But, in the meantime, I had heard from him as a 
most acceptable and successful Avorker and assistant 
in some of the great revivals which at that time so 
largely blessed Western New York. I knew of his 
Patagonian expedition and explorations in his Mas- 
ter's service, but my next meeting with him was 
here in Honolulu in the spring of 1837. 

"You can imagine the deeper interest which I felt 
in renewing, under such changed circumstances and 
in G foreign land, the acquaintance begun nine years 
earlier in our far-off native country. 

"Here I found him engaged in that loved life-work 
from which he never ceased till the message from 
the Master came, bidding him 'come up higher.' 
He was a successful laborer, and large numbers 
whom, through the Master's assistance, he had v/on 
from the darkness of heathenism to the way of life, 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co mi. 221 

preceded him to the Heavenly City, and many more 
that mourn him now will follow hereafter. 

"He possessed fine conversational powers, and 
spoke and wrote acceptably with equal facility on 
sacred and secular subjects, as those well know who 
have read the productions from his facile pen. 

"His descriptions of his volcanic explorations, and 
of volcanic eruptions and earthquake experiences, 
led the American JoiLrnal of Arts and Sciences 
long ago to speak of him as 'the prince of pen- 
painters,' and it was deserved, as one cannot but 
feel when rising from the perusal of his graphic 
descriptions, whether they be of the sublimity of the 
ocean; of wanderings in the wilds of Patagonia; the 
grandeur of the volcanic fire-river, irresistibly car- 
rying all before it; the voice of God, as he shakes 
terribly the earth; or his still small voice, speaking 
to the hearts of men. He fascinated men, as I have 
occasion to know, who have heard so many testify 
of him. He had unusually diversified powers, but 
he consecrated them all to Christ. " 

FKOM RKV. S. E. BISHOP. 

"I enclose a copy of the chief portions of a letter 
written by the beloved Father Coan, a year ago, in 
which peculiar circumstances led him to make what 
was to me a very wonderful revelation of his inner 
experience in preaching the word of salvation. 

"It is to be observed that he asserts an intense 
and habitual consciousness during the earlier period 
of his ministry to the Hawaiians, of a Divine power 
resting upon him in speaking the word. To those 



222 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

who witnessed his speech in those days, or who 
were famiHar with the wonderful effects produced, 
such an assertion will not seem strange or improba- 
ble, unless they are disbelievers in the Savior's 
promise of such power of the Holy Ghost to his 
messengers. 

"It is also to be observed, that he declares a 
mighty out-reaching of his heart in loving desire 
towards his hearers, also an all-conquering assurance 
possessing him at such times of the irresistible, 
penetrating power of the Word upon the souls of 
the hearers. To my mind these are most preg- 
nantly significant expressions of that combined 
power oi faith and love with which our departed 
friend was gifted by the Holy Spirit to wield the 
Divine Word, for the salvation of such a multitude 
of souls as gave evidence of true conversion to 
Christ through his preaching. 

"It appears from his statement that the period of 
his enjoyment of this extraordinary prophetic or 
preaching endowment, in its highest degree, was 
about ten years. After this, while habitually preach- 
ing with a peculiar power, both of love and of con- 
fidence, he would seem to have more commonly 
exercised the pastoral gifts of teaching, ruling, train- 
ing the Lord's household, rather than the evangel- 
ist's gift of awakening and converting men in great 
masses. 

"Permit me now to state briefly my own early 
recollections of Mr. Coan, in the first years of his 
ministry in these islands. I was, from 1834 to 1839, 
one of a company of the older children of mission- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa7i. 223 

aries. During the general meetings, every year, we 
were wont to be assembled frequently, often daily, 
for children's meetings. Mr. Spalding had been our 
favorite children's speaker, but when Mr. Coan came 
he absolutely fascinated us. He was sweet and win- 
ning, in presence and tones; he was fertile and co- 
pious in such stories and illustrations as please the 
youthful mind; but underlying and pervading his 
whole speech and presence there was a personal 
magnetism of love that ' wrapped his heart ' around 
us, and drew us, sweetly and irresistibly, to the love 
of God in Christ. I, later, came under the stringent 
intellectual and spiritual force of Finney, and felt 
the piercing power of the Spirit's sword, in his hands, 
but never have known a winning power of love in 
any preacher like that of the spiritual father of our 
childhood. 

"God has vouchsafed many peculiar mercies to 
the people of the Hawaiian Islands, both temporal 
and spiritual, to which they owe their present high 
vantage ground of liberty and prosperity. It seems 
to me that we may estimate as among the most re- 
markable of these mercies God's gift to the Hawaiian 
people of a man of such extraordinary evangelistic 
power as Titus Coan." 

The following are extracts from the letter referred 
to in the above: 

Hilo, December 2^, 1881. 
"my dear bro. bishop: — It is only when the * pow- 
ers of the world to come ' rest upon us that we have 
any power to win souls, or to draw sinners to a near 
view of the cross of Christ. It is then that the 



2 24 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings that 
cannot be uttered. 

"I often felt this same power while preparing for 
the ministry, and numbers, both of adults and chil- 
dren, were drawn to the Savior in meetings, in 
schools, and in personal interviews. 

"When I came to these Islands, and before I could 
use the Hawaiian language, I often felt as if I 
should burst with strong desires to speak the word 
to the natives around me. And when my mouth 
was opened to speak of the love of God in Christ, I 
felt that the very chords of my heart were wrapped 
around my hearers, and that some inward power 
was helping me to draw them in, as the fisherman 
feels when drawing in his net filled with fishes. 

"In these days and years I never rose to address a 
native audience without feeling an assurance that a 
Divine power rested upon me, and that ' Death and 
Hell ' could not withstand the Word of God, but 
that it was the ' sword of the Spirit, quick and pow- 
erful; ' that it was the ^ fire and hammer,' and the 
gleaming battle-axe of Jehovah, ordained to con- 
quer Satan and sin; and that it is, in deed ■d.viA in 
truth, ' the power of salvation ' to all who believe, 
whether speaker or hearer. 

"And the fruits of that faith were abundant and 
marvelous. The masses of our people were moved 
and swayed as the forest is swayed by a mighty 
wind. Converts were multiplied by thousands, and 
they came rushing into the open gates of Zion like 
clouds of doves. The kingdom of heaven suffered 
violence. And this continued, with more or less 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 225 

power, for ten years; and up to the present day, for 
more than forty-six years, we have had only one 
communion season without some ingathering into 
the church. 

"But those early days were ordained and prepared 
of the Lord. The plowman, the sower, the reaper, 
the binder of sheaves, the gatherers into the garner, 
moved forward in full view of one another, breaking 
up the fallow-ground, and shouting the ' Harvest- 
home.' But that state of things has passed. We are 
gleaners now. 

"The natives are few. The world has rushed in. 
More than thirty different nationalities are com- 
mingling their Babel jargon. Conflicting elements 
are boiling in the little Hawaiian crucible, and 
earthly greed, misrule and license are antagonistic 
forces of great power. But still we ought to feel 
assured that ' the Lord reigns ^ and that there is ' a 
Refiner' who can melt and purify in spite of sin and 
Satan. 

"The generation of simple, believing and praying 
men and women in Hilo is gone, and another gen- 
eration, that knows not Joseph, has come upon the 
stage, and my helpers are few and feeble, and I can 
not climb the hills, penetrate the jungles, fight the 
rivers, and buffet the storms, as in days of old. . 

"How my heart would rejoice and my tongue be 
glad, should * the Holy Ghost come upon us, and 
the power of the Highest overshadow us,' and Hilo 
be once more visited with life from God before I go 
home to return no more. 



2 26 MetJiorial of Rev, Titus CoaJt. 

" O ! for an awakening that shall shake these I slands 
out of the sleep of death." 

FROM EEV. 8. LYONS. 

"After Mr. Coan reached his location at Hilo in 
August 1835, our correspondence commenced and 
was continued sometimes weekly and sometimes less 
frequently until that fatal stroke of paralysis ter- 
minated it. O, how I wept when the tidings came 
that I must lose such a correspondent! In the time 
of the great revival his letters were frequent, and his 
soul was all on fire, kindled by the Holy Spirit. 
They were very cheering and very stimulating to me. 
How earnestly he preached and prayed and wrestled 
in prayer for the salvation of souls. How he moved 
vast assemblies by his fervent and overwhelming 
preaching and praying. There was work enough 
for two preachers and pastors in the large field of 
Hilo and Puna — yes, more than enough. Yet 
Brother Coan, being a strong young man and full of 
missionary fire, thought he could do the work of two 
pastors and preachers and thus allow Brother Lyman 
to devote himself more exclusively to school-teach- 
ing. Hence, arose the Hilo Boarding School which 
has greatly prospered. 

"What a laborious pastor Brother Coan was, is 
well known. For years his tours were performed on 
foot. When the appointed time came he was 
punctual in fulfilling his appointments. Raging 
storms and swollen streams, and rushing, roaring 
cataracts did not detain him. Dear, courageous, 
fearless brother, thou art now reaping the rewards of 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 227 

thy labors of love in that world where no raging 
storms or roaring cataracts impede thy circuit over 
the heavenly fields. 

"Brother Coan's correspondence was extensive, 
embracing the world. O! ye recipients of his cheer- 
ing, comforting, soul-stirring letters, join with me in 
mourning over the loss of this prince of correspond- 
ents. 

"Though he was the pastor of the largest church 
in the world, he was not proud of it. Though he 
received the degree of D. D., he wished to be 
addressed simply as Rev. T. Coan. Though a very 
holy man, in his letters to me he would express 
himself as a great sinner, and, if saved at all, it would 
be by grace. 

"Farewell, dear and loving brother. For forty- 
seven years we were united heart and soul in 
laboring for the good of Hawaiians and others. 
Thou hast finished thy course first and obtained the 
crown of life that fadeth not away. United in this 
life, so may we be in the life to come. Amen." 

FROM PAAKAULA. 

(Letter from a Native Paris kiojter.) 
"Before giving expression to any testimony relat- 
ing to him, I would express my great love for Mr. 
Coan, a true worker for Christ, a faithful laborer in 
the garden of the Lord throughout the districts of 
Hilo and Puna; and in his separation from us we all 
grieve in the loss of a laborer for the kingdom of 
Christ in Hawaii. 

"He was strong, without discouragement, in the 
work of the Lord, with all meekness, content and 



2 28 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

deep reverence. He treated with kindness the poor, 
the afflicted, the sick; and to all he was constant in 
the preaching of the kingdom of God. I can see 
that he did his work without the desire of man's 
approbation, but was strong in the work of the Lord 
even to the end. I am sure that we of Puna as well 
as of Hilo are under a great debt for Mr. Coan's 
instruction in Christian uprightness, as also as 
regards many other good works. And I believe 
that some of us who have gone before have found 
the life eternal in the heavens, and that they now 
are meeting Mr. Coan, rejoicing greatly. I desire 
that I may die the death of the righteous. " 

FROM ILI, 

{Another Native Paris hiojiei'). 

"He was an upright man before God and man, 
and his works were just. He was a faithful minister 
of the great God, and his thoughts were ever of 
him up to the time of his death. He was full of 
love and gentleness, and his hand was ever ready to 
clasp the hands of the men, women and children of 
Puna. 

"During the first years of his pastorate, while the 
roads were exceedingly bad, with great patience he 
made his journeys through Puna on foot, instead of 
on horseback. 

" He showed to the people of Puna his very great 
love for them in that he kept up his intercourse with 
them during all of his long residence in Hilo. 

"Through his preaching of the word of God, 
doubtless those that believed in Jesus found life. I 
doubt not that because of his labors in turning souls 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 229 

to Jesus, he himself has found Hfe everlasting in 
heaven. 

"These are a few of my thoughts of him, but there 
remain untold many of his good works. * Blessed 
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of 
heaven.' Mr. Coan is there." 

FROM DK. C. H. WETMORE. 

"My personal acquaintance with the Rev. Titus 
Coan covered more than a third of a century. In 
America I had read with deep interest, as so many 
others have done, Brother Coan's letters as they ap- 
peared from time to time in the Missionary Herald, 
and I was thereby prepared to respect, love and 
honor him. He had the pen of a ready writer, and 
well knew what Herald readers were anxious to hear 
about. My sainted father-in-law. Deacon Thomas 
Taylor, of Pittsfield, always read his letters and 
reports first; he sent by me a verbal, loving mes- 
sage, saying, 'Tell him I wish there was a multitude 
of other missionaries like him.' 

"Up to the time of my arrival at the Islands, Mr. 
Coan had labored assiduously both for the souls and 
bodies of his parishioners. As soon as my acquaint- 
ance with the Hawaiian language allowed me to take 
up the work of the physician he gave it into my 
hands cheerfully, that he might devote himself more 
efficiently * to the ministry of the word.' I was often 
obliged to ask him to interpret for me, as new cases 
presented themselves, and new language was re- 
quired. How patiently he rendered the needed 
aid, and how gladly he helped me in acquiring a 
knowledge of the new tongue, I need only to allude 



Memorial of Re' . Tiius Coan. 



to. as these were prominent features of his character 
to the very last hours of his life. About six weeks 
after our arrival at the station, he pressed me to 
accompany him 07i foot on his missionary tour 
through the district of Hilo, and in the following 
autumn on another like trip through Puna. I gladly 
accepted his invitations in order to see his work, 
and see him work, and so be learning important les- 
sons myself, which were calculated to increase my 
qualifications for the labors before me. Traveling 
with him over what he used to speak of as ' tortuous, 
rough, precipitous, slipperv', exhausting and dan- 
gerous footpaths,' and crossing those rivers, too, 
which he was wont to describe as ' rushing, roaring 
and raging,' I became exceedingly wear\'. while he. 
almost a score of years my senior, would appear 
fresh, and in point of activity, youthful. On these 
tours he labored all day and much of the night, 
among the churches and schools, striving to develop 
Christian character and usefulness, and endeavor- 
ing to promote the cause of education, and also to 
increase the interest of children and youth in both 
day schools and Sunday schools. I shall not soon 
forget his persistent efforts in encouraging me to 
speak and pray, even with a stammering tongue, as 
we journeyed on from village to village; when my 
vocabulary was too limited he would joyfully sup- 
plement the same. 

As neighbors — living as we did almost within * a 
stone's throw' of each other — we were, of course, in- 
timate; not even a fence was needed to keep us from 
quarreling. Seldom have families lived so near to each 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 231 

other for so long a time, in such pleasant and happy- 
relations. After that terrible earthquake at Hilo, 
late in the afternoon of April 2, 1868, which drove 
us from our houses, rocking them like a ship at sea, 
a few of us sat upon the grass in 'Emerald Bower,' 
to partake of our evening repast — fragments that 
had been snatched from our deranged tables and 
dilapidated houses. As I now think of it, it seems 
but as yesterday that I heard Father Coan's voice 
as he then asked a blessing upon us from that God 
whom he addressed as * our refuge and strength, a 
very present help in trouble.' Calmly and trustfully, 
and with an effect very soothing to every troubled 
heart, did he utter these words of the Psalmist, 
'therefore will not we fear, though the earth be 
removed, though the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and 
be troubled, though the mountains shake with the 
swelling thereof.' 

"He had 'a sound mind in a sound body;' it was 
this that helped to make him so cheerful, hopeful 
and active in his long and faithful career. He labored 
diligently in his Master's vineyard, aiming constantly 
at perfection. His work is finished, and already he 
has heard the commending words, 'Well done, good 
and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord.'" 

TRIBUTE BY MKS. HIKAM BINGHAM. 

"For more than twenty-five years it was permitted 
me to know this noble man, 'one of God's great 
men,' and under varied circumstances to note the 
excellence of his Christian character. 



232 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coa?i. 

"His first home in the Sandwich Islands was at 
the old Mission House, then the Bingham home, and 
during the month spent there, while awaiting op- 
portunity to go to his appointed station in Hilo, was 
commenced the life-long friendship, so prized in 
both families. In later years, when Mr. Bingham's 
son had grown to manhood and had girded on the 
missionary armor, he came back to these islands on 
his way to Micronesia. No one gave him a more 
cordial welcome than did he who had been like a son 
in the old home. The benignant smile, the gracious 
courtesy of manner reminded me, who then saw him 
for the first time, of one whom I had greatly admired 
in America, Rev. Dr. S. H. Cox. 

"The Missionary packet. Morning Star, was to 
make a voyage to the Marquesas Islands, before 
going to Micronesia, and we were invited with great 
cordiality to spend a part of the time of waiting for 
her return, with the Coans, at Hilo. During that 
visit, the first of many, we were favored in being 
allowed to join a party of visitors to the world- 
renowned Kilauea, under the escort and care of our 
friend and host. Words fail to tell of all his gentle 
attention to each one's comfort, and his genial good 
humor that brightened every step of the often tedious 
way. 

"There was no comfortable 'hotel' at the volcano 
in 1857. A grass house with but one room, 
furnished all the accommodations the traveler could 
then find. Here Mr. Coan kindly took supervision 
of our entertainment. In the memories of those 
days he who was the central figure, the main actor. 



Memorial of Rev, Titus Coan. 233 

stands out prominently. * The joy of the Lord ' was 
his constant * strength' and it beamed forth in every 
act and word. 

"Courtesy, urbanity, consideration for others, 
abounding hospitality, faithfulness in every depart- 
ment of domestic and social life, are words that but 
feebly convey an idea of what he was. He loved to 
'use hospitality without grudging' and to do good to 
all men.' And how many ways he found of doing 
good. Did our Hawaiian Board need help in its 
foreign or home work? Was the American Board 
wishing to enter newly opened doors? Or did any 
other organization of good for human kind appeal 
for aid? His generous heart was ready to respond 
according to his ability. Economical and frugal 
in the best and highest sense, he was equally 
benevolent and large hearted. He gave because he 
loved to give. And he encouraged others to give. 
Mothers under his instructions loved to teach even 
baby hands to drop their little pieces of money into 
the box where others were contributing. 

"How kindly his greeting always was! Long will 
last the memory of the gentle 'How do you do, my 
little friend?' as he lovingly took the hand of some 
child whom he met upon the street, or in the home. 
Was it some lowly Hawaiian who wanted a few 
words with the pastor so revered and loved? The 
hearty 'Aloha,' the warm grasp of the hand were 
ever ready. 

"Never a morning in all the year that a most 
cordial 'Good morning' did not await each member 
of the family as they met in the breakfast room. 



2 34 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 

Afterwards we gathered about the family altar and 
listened to his reading of the Word. How delight- 
fully he remarked upon it. If there were children or 
domestics who might not readily comprehend what 
had been read, he would seek in a most winsome, 
natural way to make it plain to them. And when 
one of the sweet songs of Zion had been sung, he 
would lead us in prayer. Who that was ever with 
him at the Throne of Grace, can forget the hour? 
His simple earnestness, his fervor of adoring love, 
with warm thanksgiving, and such tender emotion 
when thoughts of him who ' loved us and washed us 
in his blood ' came over him. The absent friends 
were never forgotten, much less the dear children of 
the household. His prayers for them are a most 
precious legacy. Not seldom he would add this 
petition. 'Bless our enemies if we have any.' 
There are few men who could more rightly and 
fearlessly than he, offer that petition of our Lord's 
prayer, 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our 
debtors.' 

"Unless there were occasion, Mr. Coan, when at 
home, rarely failed to spend the morning in his 
study; how industriously, let the many sermon briefs, 
the essays for associations, the accurate church 
records, the annual reports and sermons, always 
ready in time, the glowing accounts of natural 
phenomena and the many letters to friends both 
across the ocean and at the Islands — let these tell. 
But those hours in the study were not uninterrupted 
ones. Often there might be heard a gentle voice 
saying, 'My dear, some one wants to see you,' and 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 235 

there could never be detected the slightest shadow 
of Impatience in the response, 'I'll come down soon,* 
though called again and again ere the mid-day hour. '* 

"How easy it was for him to speak of the better 
life and to sow everywhere the blessed seed. How 
the fullness of his love to the Redeemer welled up 
and overflowed in affectionate expression. For hirn 
it was always * Christ to live.' 

"The Master's Word was more to him than meat 
and drink. He enjoyed works of science and 
philosophy; he maintained the liveliest interest in 
the topics of the day; was always abreast of the 
times, and often in advance of them; but he never 
failed to find in the Bible that which was nearest 
and dearest. His familiarity with it told how faith- 
fully it had been studied. 

Held in high esteem by others, how by those who 
dwelt in the sanctuary of the home? It was my 
blessed privilege to know well that rare woman who 
was his first chosen companion. I can never forget 
how I was always impressed with the sweetness and 
the mutual courtesy of their domestic life. ' Her 
children rise up and call her blessed; her husband 
also, and he praised her.^ Never more than here 
was the home ' a little heaven begun below,' where 
mutual love ' divided burdens and doubled joys;' 
never was the spirit of the marriage relation, as set 
forth in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, better illus- 
trated than it has been in the Emerald Bower in all 
the years." 



236 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 



MEMORIAL POEM. 



Mes. M. C. Kittkedge. 



Toll, softly toll, oh! swinging bell, 
And from thine airy church-tower tell 
In what strange mystery of rest — 
Hands folded on a marble breast, 
Closed eyes and frozen lips, whose calls 
But lately thrilled these sacred walls — 
He lies encoffined, 'gainst whose door 
Love pleads in vain forever more. 

Toll, softly toll; this Sabbath morn 
Eesponsive waits, with radiant dawn; 
On every vale and hill what calm! 
What hush in whispering groves of palm! 
Above, in azure depths of sky, 
The white -robed choirs of clouds go by; 
And on the shore soft wavelets creep, 
Attuned the same sweet peace to keep. 

Full fifty years have come and gone 
Since he whose open grave we mourn 
Stood in his manhood's glorious prime, 
Attent unto the Voice divine — 
Like Samuel of old, his cry, 
"What wilt thou, Lord, lo! here am I!" 
In quick response came answer then, 
Go, preach my word to dying men. 

Henceforth, in far-off, unknown lands, 
'Neath tropic skies, on burning sands, 
With ardor keen and quick desire, 
Unquenched as Mauna Loa's fire, 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 237 

That poured its volumes at his side, 
He taught of Christ, the crucified. 
The lowliest hut he shared — the cup 
Of want and toil, he drank it up. 

In life's great highway men give praise 

To him who in the crowded ways. 

By push and jostle in the race, 

Secures at length the foremost place ; 

Who builds a monumental stone 

To carve a gilded name upon; 

Who on Ambition's dizzy height 

Has climbed, through greed and wrong and might. 

But God's true heroes — such was he — 
Go forth to soundless victory; 
In humblest ranks they take their stand, 
And reach a helping human hand, 
To lift from depths of sin and pain 
The soul, to life and hope again; 
Nor other earthly boon they crave 
Than this — to succor and to save. 

He walked with God ; his love and grace 
Shone ever deepening in his face; 
A knight, without reproach or fear, 
So spotless did his name appear; 
A character self-poised and calm, 
Like his own island's beauteous palm! 
And like the tropic's sunset light. 
His faith resplendent met the night. 

At last the night! — ah! no, the morn! 
God touched him — and for him the dawn! 
" He walked with God, and he was not;" 
Like Enoch's is the story wrought. 
Toll, softly toll, oh! swinging bell, 
And from thy airy church-tower tell 
That he who helped a race from sin 
'Mid welcoming hosts has entered in ! 



238 Memorial of Rev. Titns Coan. 

FROM KEV. E. BOND. 

Kohala, May 26, 1883. 

TO MRS. COAN. 

"Your reference to the visit of dear Brother Coan 
and yourself to Kohala nei, recalls the event, with 
all its pleasant memories, most distinctly. 

"It was a year ago to-day — a most beautiful day; 
earth could not have shown one more perfect. I 
had been wishing to meet Mr. Coan once more, 
•aware that at his full age he might be called away 
at any moment, and pass beyond the possibility of 
human fellowship. Yet such a meeting I had scarcely 
dared hope for. It was only when I learned that 
you both were designing to leave for the general 
meeting, in Hololulu, that I saw a gleam of hope. 
The long, hot day at Mahukona I thought it quite 
probable yo,u would avoid by taking the cars hither. 
It was by no means, however, a certainty to my 
mind that you would do so, and hence there was a 
large element of doubt, mingled with a somewhat 
feeble hope, as I looked out upon the road, hour 
after hour, during the early part of the day. It was 
late when I stepped out into the yard for a final 
reconnoissance, when, as I was about to turn back in 
disappointment, the carriage was espied coming up 
the hill. The meeting and the greeting I need not 
recount in its details. You know it all, for of it 
you also were a part. And of the sweet Christian 
fellowship of that afternoon, and of the early morn- 
ing, what shall I say? Memory retains it all, and 
will, most sacredly, to the end. 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 239 

"The key-note of the delightful season was given 
in that expression of our dear Brother, ' This is my 
last visit to Honolulu.' Not that there was, so far 
as I know, any presentiment of the end so soon to 
come, yet it so fully accorded with my own convic- 
tions as I sat with him and noted his increasing age, 
that it infused a tenderness of spirit into our com- 
munings that would otherwise have been wanting. 
It was clear to me that it was our last earthly meet- 
ing. Yet, as from of old was his wont, there was 
no shadow to dim his habitual cheeriness cast over 
the scene. Nothing could have been more in ac- 
cord with the spirit of joyous, Christian intercourse. 

** The brief walk to the Girls' Seminary, and to 
my son's house, seemed to him a delight, and with 
the simplicity and heartiness of a child he seemed 
to appropriate every object that met his eye and 
every circumstance that attended the walk with full 
and hearty enjoyment. 

"And when, on the next morning, we assisted 
him into the carriage, with yourself and Miss C, 
can you imagine how thankful I felt to the gracious 
Lord and Master that he had vouchsafed to us here, 
to myself especially, so sweet a foretaste of what is 
to come next, on the other side, when we shall, 
through grace, all gather in the Father's house? 
And the final embrace, and driving off and disap- 
pearance down the road, how, as I now look back 
upon it, does it seem to me a fittingly tender and 
last adieu, as though he were leaving for his heav- 
enly home, as indeed he was. 



240 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan, 

"And so, substantially, closed a period of frater- 
nal Christian intercourse which had, at that time, 
run on through forty-one years. And now, in the 
retrospect, it affords me great and tender satisfaction 
that in all that long season o( very frequent episto- 
lary intercourse, not one shadow of unhappy disa- 
greement ever came between us. He loved peace, 
was ever a peacemaker, and now lives in the full 
fruition of the blessedness promised to such. 

"Good-by, dear Brother, till again we meet, face 
to face, in the blessed ^Master's presence." 

FROM .JOEL BE AX. 

San Jose, Cal., 1883. 

TO MRS. COAN. ^ » > j 

"Our first meeting with dear Titus Coan was in 
his own home, in the spring of 1862. Long before, 
we had read of him and his fellow-laborers, in the 
journal of Daniel Wheeler; and the warm welcome 
extended by these dear Fathers of the Sandwich 
Islands Mission to members of our Society who vis- 
ited the islands, as ambassadors for Christ, brought 
them into esteem in our section of the church, both 
in England and America. 

"Not without some little trepidation did I ap- 
proach the threshold of one whose praise in the 
Gospel was throughout all the churches. But when 
we met, the grasp of his hauvd, the benignity of his 
countenance, and the gentleness and sweetness of 
his spirit, dispelled it all, and my heart was at once 
drawn to him, as a Father in Christ. 

"He and his dear wife, Fidelia Coan, welcomed 
us to their home and people; and during the weeks 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 241 

of delightful Christian intercourse we were bound 
together in a confidence and sympathy and fellow- 
ship of spirit never to be broken, and destined 
to deepen as the years passed on. Our cor- 
respondence, from that time, continued until 
their death. What their letters have been to 
us, these twenty years, can only be estimated by 
those who shared the warmth and wealth of their 
affection, and the intellectual and spiritual impulse 
they were gifted so largely to impart through the 
pen. Titus Coan's contributions to the periodicals, 
especially those on the subject of Peace, were very 
acceptable to the Society of Friends; and his books 
on ' Patagonia,' and * Life in Hawaii,' have found 
delighted readers among our people. 

"When on the other side of the Atlantic, ten years 
ago, in England, Scotland and Ireland, my wife and 
I were called upon, over and over again, in large 
and interested gatherings, to tell the story of the 
Sandwich Islands Mission. So the name of Titus 
Coan was endeared and honored among Friends, to 
many of whom the tidings of his death were heard 
with sorrow, and his memory is precious. 

"Dear and noble veteran of the Cross! In the 
Spirit of the Master, and by the grace of God, he 
did large and blessed service, and in no common 
degree he possessed and exhibited that catholicity 
of spirit, that breadth and depth of Christian love 
which brings into joyful realization the fact attested 
in the Gospel, that the children of God, of every 
nation and denomination, are * all brethren,' and one 
Church and one Body in Christ Jesus, the Head," 



242 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

The following paper, by Rev. E. P. Baker, was 
read at the Monthly Concert in the Hilo Foreign 
Church: 

"On this first Sabbath evening in July, 1883, the 
45 th anniversary of the day when Father Coan re- 
ceived 1705 persons to membership in Hilo Church, 
a larger number, probably, than had, up to that 
time, ever been received in any Protestant church 
in any one place and on any one day, since Pente- 
cost, it seems fitting that we should speak of him 
whose personality occupied so large a place in the 
Christian past of Hawaii. 

"Mr. Coan was, first of all, a man of practical 
efftciency in dealing with external circumstances and 
handling material things. He was above the world, 
indeed, but at the same time in the world, quite as 
much as the most pronounced secularist. He was 
no ascetic or visionary mystic; had he been a non- 
Christian and devoted himself, as a life occupation, 
to mining, merchandizing, railroading or law, he 
would probably have had the name of being, and 
deservedly, one of the shrewdest and, perhaps, most 
successful m^en of his time. As it was, he devoted 
himself to the upbuilding of Christ's cause, as his life 
occupation, bringing to this, his chosen task, sub- 
stantially the same efficiency he would have brought 
to any secular calling he might have chosen. 

"Witness those perilous months of abode he and 
his companion spent in Patagonia. Mr. Coan and 
Mr. Arms, alike, must have then and there had at 
command and in exercise address, tact, nerve and 
courage of the highest sort, otherwise the only pos- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 243 

sible escape they could have effected from that terri- 
ble peninsula would have been that of leaving their 
bones upon the soil beneath them, and themselves 
soaring upward, disembodied spirits, to the throne 
of God. 

"Witness Father Coan's foot tours around Hawaii, 
involving excessive weariness, and his persistent 
inspections of the great eruptions of Mauna Loa, 
involving more or less of danger. He simply could 
not have performed all these physical exploits had 
he not known, and that, too, in a pre-eminent de- 
gree, how to adapt himself to and take advantage 
of, and manipulate at will, the various material con- 
ditions with which, in any given case, he might find 
himself beset. 

"Witness, also, that carefully devised and effi- 
ciently executed plan and method, by and according 
to which, for long years, he carried forward Chris- 
tian work in his chosen field. Plan and method 
alone will not save this world, for which Jesus Christ 
has died; still, plan and method, with other subsid- 
iary help, should be employed in doing the Lord's 
work, and the Hilo church of thirty and forty years 
ago, with its outlying apanas, or branch churches, 
and corps of Lunas, or sub-pastors, is an illustra- 
tion of how Father Coan was wise in his generation; 
as indeed all workers for Christ ought to be in theirs. 
The changed condition of things in this field during 
later years has rendered more or less inoperative and 
inefficient, indeed, that system of Christian instru- 
mentation which thirty and forty years ago worked 
so well. Still, its remarkable adaptation to those 



244 Memorial of Rev, Titus Co an. 

times shows that he who created it accurately per- 
ceived the needs of the situation, and went wisely 
forward to supply them. 

"Father Coan, moreover, had a certain versatility 
of nature which enabled him to encounter any and 
every environment with which he might find him- 
self beset, in the best possible temper, and as it 
seems to us, looking at what he did through the 
perspective of the past, in the best possible way. 
He flung himself with cheerful zest into things as 
they came to him, and for^ Christ's sake made the 
best of them. He had a buoyancy of nature which 
may not unfittingly be characterized as boyish; and 
octogenarian though he was, when I first knew him, 
there was yet about him a certain easy simplicity 
and juvenility of manner that was to me very attract- 
ive. Boy-like, he would ever and anon take up, 
toss about and extract sport out of the minor details 
of life, in a way which, I think, was very fascinating 
to all his friends. 

"He was every inch a man — his manhood was 
specially virile — still there was attaching to his make- 
up and demeanor a certain quiet gentleness, passive 
receptivity and delicacy of intuition which properly 
belong to woman, and wherever found suggest the 
presence of woman. There is no womanhood that 
is not more truly womanly for having running through 
and emanating from it an element and flavor of mas- 
culinity. In just the same way there is no manhood 
that is not more truly manly for having running 
through and emanating from it an element and fla- 
vor of femininity. Thus endowed, as I have read 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an, 245 

his make-up, was Father Coan, by that wonder- 
working power of God which accords to one person 
one style of character, and to another, another. 
And very richly endowed, as duly combined with 
other elements, passivity is even more efficiently act- 
ive than bare activity can ever by any possibility be; 
and weakness even more truly powerful than bare 
power can ever be. In a real and true sense, there- 
fore, even as the Psalmist did, could Father Coan 
say to the God who created him, *Thy gentleness 
hath made me great.' " 

"Speaking mightily oftentimes in his public ad- 
dresses, and, Nathan-like, on occasion rebuking sin 
in private, was he not in his daily intercourse more 
often than otherwise as delicate and tender as a 
mother with her children? And did not strangers 
writing of Hilo have good reason for characterizing 
the hospitality they received at his house as more 
than Oriental, and feeling that there was a man to 
be long corresponded with and remembered? 

"But though encircled with ivy and exteriority 
variegated and adorned with many beautiful and 
brilliant flowers, his essential personality was a tower 
of granite of the solidest description: conjoined with 
great gentleness of disposition and irrepressible 
cheerfulness of demeanor was an interior rectitude 
of the very toughest adamant — he literally loved 
righteousness and hated iniquity — while his philos- 
ophy of existence was scarcely less than the sternest. 

"As he looked at it, it was a solemn thing to live 
as well as a solemn thing to die. He held fast to 
the old theology, because it seemed to him to be 



246 Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 

superior to any and all of the new theologies thus far 
brought forward to fill the place of the old. As 
compared with the new, the old theology, so it 
seemed to him, furnished a truer explanation of the 
deeper facts of existence, laid a firmer foundation on 
which to uprear the structure of Christ-like charac- 
ter, and afforded a loftier inspiration to right living. 
He did not insist upon it that the modified Calvin- 
ism of the New England theology was a final and 
perfect statement of the truth of God; still, looking 
over the world and up and down the ages, and 
noting that the highest style of character and con- 
duct earth has ever seen has been developed under 
the philosophy of Calvinism as an enveloping atmos- 
phere, and from out the bosom of Calvinistic insti- 
tutions as a stimulating soil to support its growth, 
he did accept the Genevan system for substance of 
doctrine, provisionally indeed, but at the same time 
heartily, believing that a working Gospel could be 
better set forth by the terms of this system than by 
those of any other thus far embodied in human 
speech. 

"But the child is father of the man, and back of 
and partially concealed by Father Coan, the strong 
man — who by his words and deeds, under God, 
changed the very contour of Christendom itself — was 
the weak child clinging to its Heavenly Father, and 
tightly clasping the hand of its elder Brother, as 
with tottering footsteps the little one pressed its way 
through the darkness and dangers of earth to the 
safety and glory of heaven; and at length he reached 
the glory to which, through some fifty years of serv- 



Memorial of Rev. Titus Coan. 247 

ice on earth, he had been pressing on; and it came 
to him very suddenly at last. It broke in on him 
in almost a single flash on the i6th of September, 
1882, and all in a moment the brightness, so long 
anticipated by faith, burst in upon his enraptured 
spirit in apparently its full splendor, at which, dis- 
regarding his body, fast dissolving into its original 
elements, he could only repeat over and over again, 
'Glory in my soul.' The man — the earthly man — 
has forever passed away, and it is now only the little 
child that is left clinging to the bosom of its Father 
and God. The last seventy-six days of his earthly 
life are to me, by all odds, the most interesting 
seventy-six days of his career beneath the sun, in 
that his previously hidden little child life in Christ 
Jesus from that time forth blossomed out in all its 
magnificence of glory, so that those who beheld him 
saw almost nothing else. ' Ye are dead and your 
life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is 
our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with 
him in glory.' The last few times I saw Father 
Coan in the flesh were to me seeing him with Christ 
in glory. Nor is it at all strange that during those 
last days on earth he was with Christ, for through 
the long stretch of fifty years preceding this final 
hour, Christ had been with him. The following are 
the exact words which in 1831 dropped from his 
pen: 'Lord, send me where thou wilt, only go with 
me; lay on me what thou wilt, only sustain me. 
Cut any cord but the one that binds me to thy cause, 
to thy heart.' 

"And between these two shining dates, 1831, 
when he wrote these words, and 1882, when he 



248 Memorial of Rev. Titus Co an. 

heard unspeakable -words from the throne of God, 
I see the golden cord of faith and love running all 
the way, and binding him all the time. I see him 
for the last time while he is in the flesh, carried into 
yonder church that he may look once more into the 
pulpit, the dear old Haili pulpit, where for nearly 
half a century he has proclaimed Christ's gospel. 
The eyes of my body, I say, behold Titus Coan, the 
aged, just like John the aged, thus borne into the 
church, but the eyes of my soul behold then and 
there, only a little child, nestling in the bosom of 
its Heavenly Father. 

"And though looking for the last time in the flesh 
upon the dear old spot where he used to tell of 
Christ's love, he was too near the home where God 
shall wipe away tears from every eye, to gaze other- 
wise than with steadfast, undimmed vision, we who 
look upon the grave that marks his last earthly 
resting-place are able to see it only imperfectly on 
account of weeping. 

" Go stand on the hill where he lies; 
The earliest ray of the golden day 
On that hallowed spot is cast, 
And the evening sun as it leaves this world 
Looks kindly on that spot last. " 



A beautiful marble slab, the gift of his people, 
marks the grave. It bears the simple inscription, 
prepared by himself: 

TITUS COAN. 

FEBRUARY 1 ST, 1801. 

DECEMBER 1ST, 188 2. 

H E Lived by Faith. 
He Still Lives. 

iOHH W 2&. 



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